On Thursday, at least 20 people were injured when eight coaches of the Mumbai-Bhubaneswar Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express derailed near Cuttack in eastern Odisha. The chief public relations officer (CPRO) from India’s East Coast Railway said there were no fatalities.
#UPDATE Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO), East Coast Railway: 20 people injured after eight coaches of Lokmanya Tilak Express derail near Salagaon. No casualty reported till now. #Odisha https://t.co/JqaXdhzHTN
— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2020
The accident took place when the passenger train hit a goods train, possibly because of low visibility, due to dense fog.
TAIN NO.12879 #LOKMANYA_TILAK EXPRESS HIT THE GUARD VAN OF S GOODS TRAIN NEAR SALAGAON #Cuttack AT ABOUT 7AM @ANI @republic @airnewsalerts @NewIndianXpress @htTweets @TOIIndiaNews @Central_Railway @PiyushGoyal @RailMinIndia @DRMKhurdaroad @eastcoastrail @the_hindu @CMO_Odisha pic.twitter.com/uI7pj4EWUP
— @Sambit 🇮🇳 (@SambitRout18) January 16, 2020
Railway authorities have yet to calculate the nature of the injuries or if there were more injured people as fire personnel, railway officials, and police were carrying out rescue operations near the scene of the accident.
20 people injured after eight coaches of Lokmanya Tilak Express derail near Salagaon, Odisha pic.twitter.com/6xkXUkEsJs
— Dipendra Kumar (@dipendrakumar03) January 16, 2020
#TrainMishapInCuttack: Fire personnel, railway officials & police carry out rescue operations near Nergundi in #Cuttack where Mumbai-Bhubaneswar LTT Express derailed early morning today #Odisha pic.twitter.com/YTlJWxYngP
— OTV (@otvnews) January 16, 2020
Five trains were diverted on the route, as the derailed coaches have yet to be removed.
India’s federal Railway Minister Piyush Goyal told parliament in December 2019 that 46 incidents of derailment were recorded in 2018 and 29 derailments in 2019.
Indian Railways is the largest rail network in the world by size with a route length of over 67,000 kilometres. It runs more than 20,000 passenger trains daily carrying 23 million passengers and 3 million tonnes of freight daily.
