Taking a serious note of the New Farakka Express derailment that claimed seven lives on Wednesday, Northern Railway’s Divisional Railway Manager (Lucknow Division) Satish Kumar on Thursday suspended an executive engineer and a signal inspector posted at at Harchandpur railway station in Rae Bareli.
Giving details, spokesman/Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of NR Lucknow division, Jagtosh Shukla, said that laxity of both the officials had come to light in the preliminary inquiry and so action was taken against them.
“The Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety will be conducting an inquiry at Harchandpur railway station from Friday. The inquiry will conclude on Saturday. On the basis of the findings of the inquiry, action will be initiated if more officials are found guilty of dereliction of duty,” he said.
Shukla denied reports of suspension of station master of Rae Bareli and Harchandpur saying the news circulated among the media was wrong.
Meanwhile, the toll in derailment rose to seven on Thursday with two of the injured people succumbing to their injuries at hospitals in Lucknow.
Rinku (28), who was brought to the KGMU Trauma Centre in a very bad state, and 11-year-old Sughandh admitted at the Trauma Centre of SGPGI with multiple fractures, died early on Thursday.
The DRM said one of the tracks on which rail traffic was disrupted following the derailment was repaired and opened for train movement on Thursday morning, while work on the other track was likely to be completed by evening.
Meanwhile, around 1 pm on Thursday, a wheel of the Bagh Express jumped off the track near Dominganj in Gorakhpur but no one was injured.
The District Magistrate and railway officials visited the spot. The train was allowed to leave for its destination after half an hour.