The unaffected coaches of the Kanchanjunga Express, which was hit by a goods train near New Jalpaiguri, arrived at Sealdah station here on Tuesday morning with nearly 850 passengers, according to an Eastern Railway official.
“Around 800 to 850 passengers arrived at Sealdah at 3.16 am,” ER spokesperson Kausik Mitra said.
The unaffected coaches began their onward journey from the accident site on Monday afternoon.
The passengers were provided with medical facilities, food, and water at various stations, including Malda Town and Sealdah, he added.
Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, West Bengal Transport Minister Snehasis Chakraborty, and Divisional Railway Manager of Sealdah Division Deepak Nigam were present at Sealdah station to help passengers reach home safely, Mitra said.
Train 13174 Kanchanjunga Express from Agartala, scheduled to reach Sealdah at 7.20 pm on Monday, arrived eight hours behind schedule.
The transport department provided 16 buses and 60 cars to transport passengers home, he added.
Various railway employee unions have objected to the railway ministry’s initial response to the West Bengal train tragedy when it prima facie blamed the driver of the goods train that hit the Kanchanjunga Express from the rear for the accident.
The employees’ unions said that squarely blaming the driver, who is not alive to defend himself, amounts to making him a scapegoat of the systematic shortcomings of the Railways.
“It was highly insensitive on the part of the Railway Board to say that the driver overshot the red signal which caused the accident,” Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary of All India Railway Men’s Federation (AIRF), said.
“My advice to the Railway Board is that in such cases, instead of blaming any staff, they should wait till the probe concludes. I don’t think that the driver was solely responsible for the accident,” he said.
Mishra referred to various operating norms and questioned why the driver was authorised to cross all red signals in the section when there was a train in between them.
“The authority to cross the red signals should have been given only when the section (distance between the two stations) was clear and there was no train in between,” he said.
The Railway Board admitted on Monday that there was a signal failure between the Ranipatra Railway Station and Chattar Hat Junction between which the accident took place.
Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety, Northeast Frontier Railway, Janak Kumar Garg, will hold a statutory inquiry in connection with the Kanchenjunga Express tragedy.
The inquiry will be held on Wednesday at the ADRM/NJP’s chamber from 10 am onwards. The inquiry may also be extended if required, according to a press release.
