Even as the Railways is investigating into the Utkal Express derailment in Muzaffarnagar, another major mishap was averted in wee hours of Saturday, exposing the prevailing callousness in maintenance of the rail tracks across UP.
A report from Kanpur Dehat said the tracks were found fractured between Malasa and Pukhraya stations on Kanpur-Jhansi route. The driver of the Pratapgarh-Bhopal express train after observing the fractured track around 1.30 am on Saturday had applied emergency brakes 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 circulating in WhatsApp where one person, who probably works in Muzaffarnagar section, claims that the repair work was on and people working there did not put the mandatory caution flag. Though the authenticity of this audio tape cannot be independently verified by The Pioneer, 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 without putting a caution flag and before it could be joined, the train was allowed to pass. One of the person could be heard saying ‘sab jail jayenga’.
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.