Bhubaneswar: The railways reported three minor mishaps involving two express trains and one goods train from late Thursday to Friday. The Samaleswari Express from Howrah to Jagdalpur derailed at Keutaguda railway station in Rayagada late Friday. The mishap occurred 18 hours after the Hirakhand Express got entangled in a power line near the Rayagada station.
The first pair of wheels of the engine went off tracks and damage was contained at that level. It did not affect any coach. The loco pilot immediately issued an alert averting a bigger mishap, railway authorities said and added that no casualty was reported.
While the exact reason for the derailment was yet to be ascertained, it caused panic among passengers. Also, several passenger and goods trains had to be halted to clear the tracks.
ECoR authorities said an extra engine was sent to bring the coaches to Singapur Road. The coaches will be moved from Singapur Road to Koraput and the entire operation was likely to be completed by 11 pm, sources added.
The Hirakhand Express had been halted about 12 km from Rayagada station about 10 pm Thursday as an electric wire got entangled in a wheel of the B2 AC compartment of the train. No harm was caused. The train resumed operation after four hours once electrical engineers from Rayagada removed the snagged wire. Again Friday, a goods train suffered a snag as the first wagon of the train got decoupled from the rest of the rake.
Media reports suggested it was similar to an earlier mishap at Titlagarh when a rake full of passengers had come loose while being shunted and run on its own for over a kilometre before it was stopped. They reported that the engine of the goods train had gone some distance before the bogies were reattached. But ECoR rejected the reports and said the incident was being “sensationalised”.
“This is different from the earlier incident. Here the first wagon got uncoupled from the rest of the wagons and as soon as the loco pilot realised it, the problem was fixed and the train continued to Titlagarh,” ECoR authorities said.
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