Uttar Pradesh: Goods train derails in Jaunpur

VARANASI: At least 14 bogies of a goods train heading towards Varanasi from Lucknow derailed near Shri Krishna Nagar railway station in Jaunpur district at 7.57am on Thursday, blocking train traffic on the Lucknow-Varanasi route via Sultanpur. Hectic efforts were being made to repair the tracks, remove the damaged bodies and restore rail traffic, railway officials told TOI, adding that no injury or casualty was reported in the incident.
Blocking of the route led to diversion of nine trains on up and down lines, while one train was short terminated and a passenger train was cancelled, said railway officials.
"Following the derailment, several trains including Delhi-Varanasi Mahamana Express were stopped at different railway stations," said additional divisional railway manager of Northern Railway (Varanasi) Ravi Chaturvedi on Thursday.
He added, "DRM NR Lucknow Suresh Kumar Sapra and other senior officials had reached the incident site, where operations for clearing tracks for restoration of train movement had been started."
The goods trains with 59 empty bogies had left for Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction's yard via Sultanpur, Jaunpur and Varanasi. While moving between Udpur Ghatampur and Shri Krishna Nagar railway station in Badlapur area of Jaunpur district, the derailment took place at 7.57am when it was changing track, said the officials, suspecting that the derailment occurred due to damage in railway track.
The officials said that the actual cause of the derailment would become clear after proper investigation.
As the bogies of this train started colliding with each other while derailing, hundreds of locals gathered near the incident site. The Shri Krishna Nagar station staff immediately alerted the neighbouring stations and senior officials about the incident, after which all trains moving on Lucknow-Sultanpur-Varanasi line were stopped at different railway stations.
The Delhi-Varanasi Mahamana Express was also stopped near Sultanpur, the officials said, adding that its passengers were given snacks and the train was diverted on Pratapgarh route to reach Varanasi.
Another train, 04264 Varanasi-Sultanpur, was shot terminated while 04263 SLN-BSB was short terminated, said officials adding, 02301 Shramjeevi Express and 045333 Barauni-Ambala Cantt Harihar Express, 04007 Raxaul-Anand Vihar Terminal and 02237 Begampura Express on up line were diverted on Pratapgarh route.
Several trains on down line, including festival special trains, were also diverted on Pratapgarh route.
Chaturvedi said that the process of removing the derailed bogies from the tracks and restoration of damaged tracks had been started. However, the officials could not confirm when the process of restoration of tracks would be completed to normalise the train movement on Varanasi-Sultan-Lucknow route.