Even as the railways are investigating into the Utkal Express derailment in Muzaffarnagar where 23 people have died and over 150 are injured, another incident has exposed prevailing callousness in maintenance of the rail tracks across Uttar Pradesh.
A report from Kanpur Dehat said a major rail mishap was averted last night when the tracks were found fractured between Malasa and Pukhraya stations on Kanpur-Jhansi route. The driver of the Pratapgarh-Bhopal express train observed the fractured track at around 0130 hrs at midnight last night and had put emergency brake to stop the train.
later, the track was repaired and trains were passed on slow speed.
Due to this incident, several trains were detained at different stations.
Meanwhile an audio clip is going round WhatsApp where one of the persons who probably works in Muzaffarnagar section claims that repair work was on and people working did not put the caution flag as mandatory. Though the authenticity of this audio tape cannot be independently verified by The Pioneer but it has chilling details about the callousness of the staff working at that section.
The audio clip says that portion of the track was being repaired and before it could be joined the train was allowed to pass without putting a caution flag. One of the person could be heard saying `sab jail jayenga’.
Meanwhile, in another incident, Bapudham Express collided with a truck on an unmanned railway crossing in Shahjahanpur district in which the driver of the truck died on the spot.
Police said the engine of the train was damaged in the collision.
The accident took place at Padra Sikandarpur unmanned railway crossing under Roza police station on the Shahjahanpur-Sitapur rail route.
There were also reports that some passengers of the train received minor injuries and the train had to be stopped suddenly.
Senior railway and police officials have reached the spot.