By Vishwas Dass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 18: The East Coast Railway (ECoR), the second largest zonal railway in terms of freight loading, has registered 122 accidents in the past one decade, in which 25 people lost their lives and 52 were wounded. Altogether, it has paid a compensation of Rs36.68lakh to the families of those who lost lives and the injured.
However, strangely, Sambalpur division stood out in that it has not paid any compensation. As many as 48 people had suffered minor and major injuries in 33 rail accidents in Sambalpur division, though no death was reported, between 2004 and 2014. The division has 211 unmanned and 147 manned railway crossings.
These details were revealed in a right to information (RTI) reply to this newspaper.
According to official statistics from all the three divisions –Khurda Road, Sambalpur and Waltair (Vishakhapatnam) — the zonal railway has paid a total compensation of around Rs 36.68lakh to people who lost their lives and suffered minor and grievous injuries in these accidents between 2004 and 2014.
An official document showed that the Khurda Road division has paid a compensation of Rs 34.44lakh for 25 mishaps occurred at unmanned railway crossings while the Waltair division paid Rs 2.23lakh from 2004 to 2014.
The Khurda Road division has registered 16 deaths – five of them railway employees – and four injuries in 25 mishaps in the last five years. It has replied that accident records were being maintained only for five years as per rule 8.25 of accident manual of ECoR, 2011. There are 128 unmanned and 282 manned railway crossings in the division.
Khurda Road division had a nightmarish experience when five railway employees were killed after two trains collided head-on at Tangiriapal station August 31, 2011. Similarly, five passengers had died when a Bolero jeep was hit by a speeding Sambalpur-Puri express May 8, 2013.
According to Waltair division data, three passengers were killed when Gurudev express was met with an accident between Duvvada and Gopalalpatnam stations June, 2007 while nine others lost their lives in Tatanagar Dhanbad express mishap occurred November, 2013.
(DIVISION) (No. of Mishaps) (Death (2004-14) (No. of Injured) (Relief paid)
Khurda Road 25(2010-14) 16 4 34,44,482
Sambalpur 33(2004-14) — 48 Nil
Waltair 64(2007-14) 12 — 2,23,800
(Vizag)
