New Delhi: At least 22 coaches of the Sabarmati Express derailed in the early hours of Saturday. No casualties have been reported so far.
The accident occurred between the Kanpur and Bhimsen railway stations while the train was travelling from Varanasi to Ahmedabad, Additional District Magistrate Rakesh Verma told ANI.
Seven other trains were cancelled and three trains were diverted after the derailment.
In a post on X, the Indian Railways said that the incident occurred at 2.30 am. “There is no loss of life or property in this,” it said. “According to the driver, prima facie a boulder hit the engine and the engine’s cattle guard was badly damaged/bent.”
Union railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw alleged that an object had been “placed on the track” which caused the train to veer off track. “Evidence is protected. IB [Intelligence Bureau] and UP [Uttar Pradesh] police are also working on it,” he said in a post on X.
The railways dispatched buses to take the passengers to Kanpur along with another train to facilitate their transportation, media reports said.
The Sabarmati Express derailment follows closely on the heels of similar accidents involving the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express, Kanchanjunga Express, and the July 30th accident of the Mumbai-Howrah train near Barabamboo in Jharkhand.
The Congress in a post on X said that 21 railway accidents had taken place in the 70 days since the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance came to power after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Train accidents have become commonplace under the Modi government. The railway minister is evading responsibility by claiming these are small incidents. The minister does not empathise with the victims of this tragedy,” the Congress said in a post on X.
On July 30, the Howrah-Mumbai Mail train derailed near Barabamboo in Jharkhand, causing two fatalities and more than 20 injuries. This incident is one of the latest in a troubling series of train mishaps that have occurred over the past few months.
Similarly, the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express met with an accident on July 19 in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district. The derailment resulted in the death of four individuals, while 31 others were injured, with many passengers in critical condition.
On June 17, the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express train crashed into a goods train, resulting in the deaths of nine individuals and approximately 30 injuries.
In June 2023, 288 passengers were killed and around 900 injured when three trains collided with each other in Odisha’s Balasore, marking one of India’s worst train accidents.