Six coaches of the Mumbai-Varanasi Kamayani Express and the engine and four coaches of the Mumbai-Jabalpur Janata Express derailed within minutes of each other between Khirkiya and Harda last night.
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While terming the accident ‘sad, ‘ Muniyappa said, “Of course, we have to compete with China but first railway tracks should be corrected and the speed should be pushed up to 160”.
Commissioner Railway Safety (central zone) will conduct an inquiry into the accidents, Railway Spokesperson Anil Saxena said.
Speaking to CNN-IBN, Trivedi said, “Don’t need bullet trains, India needs better tracks to prevent casualties in train accidents”.
Relief trains along with Accident Relief Medical Van was immediately despatched from Itarsi which reached Bhirangi station at 0220 hours on Wednesday morning.
The chairman of the Railway Board, AK Mittal, said that the derailment of the two trains near Harda in Madhya Pradesh may have been caused by a sudden flash flood.
Prabhu particularly highlighted that the section between Delhi and Kolkata was facing the problem of delays and said the trains crossing Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were missing deadlines as this route was running much over its capacity, The solution to this problem is augmentation of railway capacity so that punctuality could be maintained, he said.
Several passengers have been rescued and sent to the nearest station, he said. “Will make detailed statement to parliament”, Prabhu said in a tweet.
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Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad was seen calming down Congress members as Prabhu hastily said he and his ministerial colleague are going to the accident site. The members stood in silence as a mark of respect to the memory departed.
