Mirza, Feb. 3: A driver trying to take his excavator across an unmanned railway crossing gate at Hatigor Bongara, close to Guwahati airport, today led to a train crash that left at least three dead and more than 50 people injured.
While five bogies of the Chilarai Passenger, which rammed into the excavator, capsized, another four bogies of the 11-coach train got derailed.
While the Chilarai Passenger was heading for Kamakhya railway station from New Bongaigaon, the excavator was crossing the line to reach its work site on a private property. Of the three dead, two were on the excavator ' Dharani Saloi (the driver) and Bipul Kalita (site in-charge).
Hiren Sarkar, who took the train to travel from Abhayapuri to Guwahati, died on his way to the Azara primary health centre.
"The grievously injured have been rushed to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, after receiving first aid at Azara PHC. This doesn't comprise those with trivial injuries who were released after first aid," said S. Hajong, chief public relations officer of Northeast Frontier Railway.
The NFR received a record of 14 injured passengers.
According to the chief public relations officer of NFR, an ex gratia of Rs 15,000 will be given to the next kin of the deceased. Subsequently, Rs 5,000 and Rs 500 will be given to those with grievous and simple injuries respectively.
Since the excavator had infringed on railway tracks, Hajong said those on it will not be entitled to ex gratia.
Ramen Talukdar, superintendent of GMCH, told The Telegraph that the nine who have been admitted to the hospital are in a critical condition, though there was no threat to life.
Uttam Nath, 28, Siddhartha Roy, 45, Abdul Rasid, 28, Mukul Das, 50, Sanjoy Nath, 17, Atul Hazarika, 45, Saidul Islam, 35, Lolit Das, 32 and Raju Medhi (his age was not available) are recuperating from injuries at the hospital. "We can state the exact condition of the injured only after 24 hours from the time they were admitted. They are currently undergoing treatment at the surgical wards and a team of doctors are monitoring them," Talukdar said.
Saidul Islam, being treated for chest and hand injuries, said the accident took place around 9.30am when the excavator hit the engine of the train at a railway crossing near Mirza.
He was travelling from Goalpara to Guwahati.
Lalit Das could not recollect anything as he lost consciousness after he heard a loud sound.
Such was the severity of the impact that the locomotive got detached from the train under the impact and travelled for around 300 metres before getting derailed.
A stretch of the tracks, over 500 metres, has been severely damaged. "I had just released my cows in the paddy field to graze and was returning home when I heard a loud sound. At first I thought there may have been an explosion, but looking back I saw the engine of the train running by itself while several coaches of the train had either capsized or jumped the tracks," said Babul Baishya, a local resident.
The accident, however, did not come as a shock to local residents, who claimed to have witnessed similar crashes before. They had even appealed to the Rangia division office to post a guard at this gate.
The divisional regional manager of Rangia division, Arun Kumar Manocha, however, denied that accidents had occurred before.
Manocha said, "This gate was a part of our proposal to man all the 300 unmanned gates under Rangia division. In the past one month, we have already manned five gates under our division."
On January 17, an annual inspection to check the safety of the unmanned gates in this area was conducted by the Rangia division, Manocha told The Telegraph.
Hatigor Bongarah was one of the points which were inspected.
The accident affected train schedules. Two passenger trains, including the one running between New Bongaigaon and Guwahati, were cancelled. Trains were diverted via Kamakhya-Rangia-New Bongaigaon.
The NFR said the tracks were likely to be restored late tonight.
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