Chennai train collision injures 7, special train for stranded travellers departs

Chennai: Southern Railway reports that on Friday, a train accident in Kavaraipettai, near Chennai, involving the Mysuru-Darbhanga Bagmati Express and a goods train resulted in seven deaths. Authorities said that every passenger within the 13 derailed Bagmati Express coaches had been successfully rescued.

The Government Hospital in Ponneri treated four of the injured passengers with minor injuries, while three passengers with significant injuries were transported to Stanley Medical College Hospital. According to a railway official statement, all seven were given ex-gratia payments.

Early in the morning, two special suburban trains brought stranded Bagmati Express passengers to Chennai Central after they had been evacuated by buses to Ponneri.

After being given food and drink upon arriving at Chennai Central, passengers were examined by railway doctors and boarded a special train that would take them via Arakkonam, Renigunta, and Gudur to Darbhanga. The notification also stated that this train left Chennai Central at 4:45 a.m., the New Indian Express reported.

Additionally, Southern Railway reported that work on restoring the track at the accident location was moving quickly. All trains that were supposed to travel via Gudur-Chennai were instead routed via Renigunta, Arakkonam, and either Chengalpattu or Perambur.

Furthermore, there was a cancellation of intercity express and MEMU trains on the routes of Chennai-Tirupati, Arakkonam-Puducherry, and Chennai-Puducherry.

On Friday at 7:50 p.m., the Bagmati Express, headed for Darbhanga, departed Perambur and arrived in Kavaraipettai, close to Gummidipundi, at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Railway officials said that although the train was given the all-clear to continue on the main line towards Gudur, it instead entered the loop line at Kavaraipettai station, where the goods train was stopped. After slowing down from its original speed of 109 km/h to 75 km/h, the train made a loud noise as it entered the loop line and collided with the goods train's rear coaches close to the guard's coach.

Thirteen coaches were derailed as a result of the incident, and one coach—a power car/parcel van—caught fire. The railroads mandated a high-level investigation into the accident.