Goods train derails near Odisha's Angul as ‘flash flood’ erodes track soil

BHUBANESWAR: A wheat-laden goods train derailed near Angul around 2.35 am on Tuesday as flash floods, triggered by torrential rain, weakened the base of the railway tracks near a bridge over a rivulet. The incident happened just 40 minutes after the Puri-Hatia Tapaswani Express with 550 passengers on board had crossed the track.
Train services between Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar were disrupted as the area, where the goods train derailed, has only one track.Twelve trains were cancelled and eight diverted on Tuesday, while four trains have been cancelled and three others diverted for Wednesday. Some more trains were partially cancelled for two days.
East Coast Railway chief public relations officer Kaushalendra Kishore Khadanga said the goods train, travelling from Ferozepur in Punjab to Khurda Road had left Angul station at 2.15 am and derailed between Angul and Talcher Road.
Nine wagons of the train capsized, while one derailed. “Prima facie, erosion under the tracks due to flash flood seems to be the cause of the derailment,” Khadanga said. While the box girder of the bridge is intact, the retaining walls on both sides have been damaged.
The CPRO said a JCB machine and two cranes from Sambalpur and Khurda have been deployed in the restoration work but rain has delayed the process.
The major trains that have been cancelled are Bhubaneswar-Balangir and Bhubaneswar-Rourkela (both Tuesday and Wednesday) besides daily trains like Rourkela-Puri, Hatia-Puri, Durg-Puri and Rourkela-Gunupur as well as the weekly Puri-Lokmanya Tilak Express, while the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar train route been curtailed till Sambalpur city.
The Anand Vihar-Bhubaneswar Special, which departed Anand Vihar on Monday, was diverted via Chakradharpur-Jaroli and Jakhapura. The Visakhapatnam-Amritsar Special ran via Vizianagaram-Rayagada-Titilagarh-Sambalpur.
The Durg-Puri Special, which left Durg on Monday, returned from Boinda and ran via Sambalpur-Titilagarh-Vizianagaram-Khurda Road. The Hatia-Puri Tapaswini Special was also diverted via Sambalpur-Titilagarh-Vizianagaram and Khurda Road.
(With inputs from Jagadananda Pradhan in Angul)