In the third Indian Railways train derailment of the day, at least six wagons of a goods train went off track on Thursday afternoon near Khandala on the Kalyan-Lonavala section resulting in cancellation and diversion of several long distance trains scheduled to cross through the same route. The wagons derailed between Monkey Hill and Khandala at 3: 55 pm. A release issued by the Central Railways stated that several trains were cancelled following the incident. “The cancelled trains include Pragati Express, Deccan Queen – both Pune bound trains from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) – Sahyadri Express (CSMT-Kolhapur), and both up and down Mahalaxmi Express (CSMT-Kolhapur),” said the release.
Besides these, a few trains have been diverted and short terminated due to the derailment, the release added. Commenting on the same, Sunil Udasi, the Chief Public Relation Officer of Central Railways said, “We are in the process of clearing the tracks.”
The release issued by the department specifically mentioned that 6 wagons of the goods trains, 3rd to 8th from rear end, derailed on down line between Monkey Hills and Khandala affecting the middle line. The release also stated that a breakdown train and tool van immediately rushed to the site to restore the lines. Due to this, long distance and intercity trains have been short terminated/ cancelled and diverted, said the release adding that in all 10 trains were cancelled, 5 short terminated and 3 diverted.
Here’s the list of trains affected due to the goods train derailment that took place earlier today:
On the sideline of the series of train derailments that took place today, the newly appointed Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal chaired a high-level meeting on safety in train operations with Railway Board officials. In the meeting, a detailed presentation on safety was made followed by discussion on the root cause of repeated cases of train accidents that have happened in recent past was thoroughly annalysed. As per a PIB release, Goyal emphasised that safety is paramount and there cannot and should not be any compromise on this front.