Kanchenjunga train accident: 9 dead, 41 injured
PM, Railway Minister announce ex-gratia
Guwahati, June 17 (HS). The death toll in the Kanchenjunga Express accident has risen to nine. While, nine passengers have been seriously injured. At the same time, a total of 32 passengers have been injured minorly.
Chief Public Relations Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Sabyasachi De has officially stated that a total of nine people have died in the accident so far. Among the deceased seven are passengers and two are the railway employees/crew members. Due to the accident, both tracks have been affected at the accident site, due to which a total of 24 trains are being run on diverted routes.
It is known that the 43174 Down Agartala-Sealdah Kanchenjunga Express, which left Agartala on June 16, was hit hard from behind by a goods train carrying containers between Rangapani and Chattarhat stations under Katihar division of NFR today. The incident took place around 10 km from New Jalpaiguri station. The incident took place at around 08.55 am on Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed grief over the accident and announced ex-gratia from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.
According to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the families of each person killed in the Kanchenjunga Express accident in West Bengal will be given an ex-gratia of ?2 lakh from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund. While the injured will be given 50,000.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the Railway Ministry will provide increased ex-gratia to the victims. In case of death, ?10 lakh, in case of serious injury, 2.5 lakh and in case of minor injury, ?50,000 will be given.
95 passengers from Assam were on board in Kanchanjanga Express
Ninety-five passengers from Assam were on board the Kanchanjanga Express train. This information has been released by the Railways. However, this number may increase further in the later stages. Out of these 95 passengers, 45 passengers were from Lumding, 24 from Lanka and 26 from Hojai. 45 passengers traveling on reserved seats were traveling to different parts of West Bengal.
Meanwhile, Lumding Railway Division has issued several helpline numbers. The helpline numbers issued by Lumding Railway Division are - 03674-263958, 263831, 263120, 263126, 263858.
The Railway Department has revealed in some preliminary information that most of the passengers of the express are from Agartala. Kanchenjunga Express stops at many stations in Assam. The first stopage of Kanchenjunga is from Dharmanagar to New Karimganj station is Karimganj. Then there are stops at Badarpur, New Haflong, Lumding, Lanka, Hojai, Guwahati, Kamakhya, Rangia. Apart from these, there is a stoppage at Barpeta Road, New Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Fakiragram, Gosaingaon Haat.
UP CM condoles loss of life in West Bengal train disaster
Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, expressed his condolences on Monday following the deaths in a train accident. In a Hindi post on X, Adityanath stated, "The loss of life in the train accident in Darjeeling, West Bengal is extremely sad and heartbreaking. My sympathies to the deceased families. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to lay the departed souls at his feet and to speed up the healing of the injured.
