While the Army and Railways worked overtime, pulling the injured and the dead out of the Sainthia train accident in West Bengal where over 60 people may have lost their lives on Monday, the South Western Railways has quietly buried three major train derailments in the last two weeks, the latest being on Sunday near Shimoga.
Sources in the railways revealed to this newspaper that all three accidents were due to negligence on part of railway staff.
“On Sunday, July 18, the Shimoga-Birur Passenger Express – 577, derailed near Shivapura at 7.28 pm. The last bogie (GS 85415770) of the train derailed after the station master gave the wrong signal to the driver to switch tracks. Two other incidents, on June 15 and June 18, were hushed up, where several bogies went off the track leaving over 30 people injured,” sources said.
On June 15, the Miraj-Hubli Express derailed shortly after it left Dharwad near Tavargatte at around 4.30 am. Five bogies veered off from the speeding train, leaving four people injured. “On June 18, passengers of train number 8048 Vasco – Howrah Amravathi Express had a brush with death. This incident was more serious in nature as over 8 bogies including two A/C coaches were derailed leaving over a dozen injured. The accident occurred near Gadag at around 3.20 pm. It took another 12 hours before passengers were rescued at around 2 am,’’ sources said.
A major cause for alarm is the manner in which authorities hushed up the three accidents and failed to order any enquiry. When contacted Kuldeep Chaturvedi, the General Manager of SWR denied the railways were involved in a cover-up, saying, they were “seriously looking into the matter.”