On Friday, Western Railway announced that a goods train’s trolley wheel derailed inside the yard at Dungri station, part of the Mumbai division. Fortunately, the incident did not disrupt traffic as realignment was completed promptly. Earlier reports by PTI had indicated a derailment involving a goods train between Valsad and Surat stations in Gujarat, though the railway clarified that traffic was not affected, and no casualties were reported.
The goods train, heading towards Surat, was affected by this derailment on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad trunk route while Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was reviewing railway safety issues at the Western Railway headquarters in Mumbai.
In a separate and tragic incident on Thursday, the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed near Gonda in Uttar Pradesh, resulting in four fatalities and 20 injuries. The derailment occurred between Motiganj and Jhilahi railway stations on the Gonda-Gorakhpur section of the Northeast Railway at approximately 2:37 p.m. Sabyasachi De, a spokesperson for the Railways, confirmed that eight coaches of the train were involved.
In response to the recent incidents, several train services have been canceled, including the Ayodhya Dham-Mankapur special trains scheduled for July 19, 2024. Saumya Mathur, General Manager of North Eastern Railways, informed ANI that restoration work is ongoing, with efforts focused on restoring the upline within a few hours. “We are working to ensure that the entire section gets restored by this evening,” Mathur stated.
The Railway Ministry has announced a high-level inquiry, in addition to a probe by the Commission of Railway Safety. To support those affected, the ministry has increased the ex-gratia compensation to ₹10 lakh for the families of those killed, ₹2.5 lakh for seriously injured passengers, and ₹50,000 for those with minor injuries.