Jharkhand Railway Accident: Tracks Restoration Work On, 7 Trains Cancelled

Efforts were on to restore tracks with the movement of trains remaining affected for the second consecutive day on Wednesday following the derailment of the Howrah-Mumbai mail in Jharkhand's Seraikela-Kharsawan district, officials said.

All the coaches and wagons have been removed from the tracks, they said.

Two persons were killed and 22 others injured after 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed at Potobeda village near Barabambo station in South Eastern Railways's Chakradharpur division on Tuesday morning.

"All the coaches and wagons have been moved from the track... We are trying to fast-track the restoration of one of the three lines. It should be functional today," Aditya Kumar Choudhary, Senior DCM of Chakradharpur, told PTI.

In a statement, the South Eastern Railway said the bi-directional third line is tentatively planned to be made operational by Wednesday.

Seven trains have been cancelled during the day. These are the 08163/08164 Chakradharpur-Rourkela-Chakradharpur Special, 12768 Santragachi-Nanded Express, 08602 Hatia-Tatanagar Special, 08195 Tatanagar-Hatia Special, 18190 Ernakulam-Tatanagar Express, 18114 Bilaspur-Tatanagar Express and 12872 Titlagarh-Howrah Express, it said.

"Some trains will also be short-terminated," it added.

The crash had prompted the railways to divert or cancel around 35 trains on Tuesday.

The opposition Congress, JMM and the TMC criticised Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for the accident and advised him to focus on passenger safety.

The railways made an ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the two deceased passengers -- P Bikash and Ajit Kumar Samal, both from Odisha's Rourkela.

The railways also paid Rs 1 lakh each to the eight people who suffered minor injuries.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)