Title - Express rams into goods train: Five injured

Three wagons of a goods train jumped tracks near Bhubaneswar after Puri-Durg Express rammed into it from behind on Wednesday night leaving at least five passengers injured. Train movement along the busy Bhubaneswar-Cuttack route was completely blocked following the mishap.

 Senior officials of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) rushed to the spot located between Patia and Barang stations, about 5 km from here. The mishap took place at about 8.30 pm.

 The passengers had a close shave since the Express train was yet to pick up speed after leaving Patia station. It is believed to have hit the goods train which was, for reasons yet to be ascertained,  stationary on the down line. Preliminary investigation suggests that signal failure may have led to the accident.

 Chief Public Relations Officer of ECoR R N Mohapatra said efforts are underway to clear the tracks so that train movement could resume along the route as soon as possible. A number of long distance trains towards  New Delhi, Kolkata and major stations down south, which pass through the route during the night, were held up.

 Sources in ECoR said the Puri-Durg Express was given clearance from Patia about 15 minutes after the goods train was cleared. Although it was moving at a restricted speed, it had been signalled to proceed under the impression that cargo train had reached Barang. The goods train, however, had stopped on the tracks and the driver of the passenger train could notice it in the last minutes. He is believed to have applied emergency brakes which averted a major mishap. None of the passengers, however, received any major injury. Under the impact of the collision, three wagons of the goods train were thrown off the tracks and landed on the Up line, leaving both the lines blocked. A probe has been ordered into the incident.

 The mishap threw train movement along the busy Kolkata-Chennai route completely haywire. The ill-fated Puri-Durg Express was brought back to Bhubaneswar and diverted to its destination through Vizianagaram and Titilagarh route, ECoR sources said. Similarly, two other trains __ Puri-Ahmedabad Express and Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express __ too were diverted through the same route.

The mishap prompted cancellation of Puri-Shalimar Express, Puri-Digha Garib Rath while Rourkela-Puri Passenger was short-terminated at Cuttack.

Train travellers had a horrendous time as a host of long-distance trains were either detained or rescheduled following the mishap. Howrah-Hyderabad East Coast Express, Chennai-Howrah Mail, Visakhapatnam-Shalimar Express, Puri-Howrah Express, Howrah-Bhubaneswar Jan Shatabdi Express, Howrah-Prashanti Nialayam Express and Yeshwantpur-Howrah were detained at various points.  Puri-Howrah Jagannath Express and Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express were rescheduled.