Rail traffic was disrupted on the Kalyan-Kasara section of the Central Railway on Friday with 12 trains cancelled and over a dozen others diverted after the Vidarbha Express collided with derailed bogies of a local train leaving one person dead and 13 injured.
Even as the restoration work on the affected track was on, six long distance trains have been cancelled, nine trains have been short-terminated while over a dozen have been diverted on alternate routes, a railway spokesman said.
Six suburban train services between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Kasara have also been cancelled besides local train services on the Asangaon-Kasara section, causing inconvenience to a lot of daily commuters on the route.
One person was killed, four were injured seriously, and nine sustained minor injuries when Mumbai-Gondia Vidarbha Express collided with derailed bogies of a local train between Kasara and Umbermali last night.
The deceased has been identified as Shakeela Quereshi, 65, a resident of Titwala in Thane district, an official release issued by the Central Railway (CR) said.
Railway minister Mukul Roy has announced an ex-gratia of `5 lakhs to the kin of the dead, `1 lakh each to the grievously injured and `25,000 each to those who sustained simple injuries.
Railways have also said that the expenses of those taking treatment at private hospitals would be borne by the department.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, Commissioner Railway Safety, Central Circle, Chetan Bakshi said at the accident site.
Earlier, CR general manager Subodh Jain said that the route affected due to the collision will be fully restored by Saturday morning.
“We will open one of the two lines by Friday mid-night and the second one by Saturday morning,” Mr Jain said at the accident site.
According to Mr Jain, the mishap occurred after the loco pilot of Vidarbha Express applied emergency brakes on spotting the derailed local train on the tracks.
The time lag between the derailed local train coming to a halt and the collision was only 1.17 seconds, and the loco pilot did the best possible thing by applying the brakes, he said, adding that this resulted in one of the bogeys of Vidarbha Express piling up on top of another. — PTI