Eight killed in AP rail mishap

Guntur, Oct 8: Eight passengers were killed and 25 others injured, four of them seriously, when nine bogies of the 7056 Hyderabad-Narsapu...

Guntur, Oct 8: Eight passengers were killed and 25 others injured, four of them seriously, when nine bogies of the 7056 Hyderabad-Narsapur Express derailed near Gudipudi railway station, five kilometres from Sattenapalli in Guntur district in the early hours of the day.

A pall of gloom descended on village with the affected passengers wailing for help. The heavy downpour and the slushy ground in the vicinity of the accident hampered relief operations. Hundreds of villagers were seen helping the Railway and the police authorities in the rescue operation.

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Only two of the dead have been identified when reports last came in. The dead have been identified as Singamraju Krishnamraju (Tirupathi) and VBS Mani (Palakollu, West Godavari district).

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The cause of the accident is stated to be a sabotage operation by some anti-social elements as fish plates and rail clips were found removed along 40 feet track at the spot. Similar removal of track parts was also noticed on the track one kilometre towards Hyderabadfrom the area of accident.

“The mishap is caused due to track damage and in this we do not rule out the possibility of sabotage by some elements,” South Central Railway (SCR) general manager NC Sinha, who visited the spot, told media persons.

The mishap occurred at around 2.30 am when the passengers were deep in slumber. Before the passengers knew what happened, the bogies jumped off the rails. The villagers, who were sleeping, woke up after they heard uncontrollable wails from the passengers and some of them rushed to the spot.

Rescue operations could be started within hours of the mishap as senior railway traffic safety officer Subba Rao, who was travelling by the ill-fated train, walked to the nearby Sattenapalli railway station and alerted the higher authorities. Relief vans were rushed to the spot from Vijayawada.

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The injured were admitted to Guntur General Hospital while a few of them were treated at Medical Relief Van that came from Secunderabad.

Describing the mishap, P Narayana, directorof Nellore-based Narayana Coaching Centre, told The Indian Express that there was a big sound in the beginning and the bogie he was travelling by gave wild jolts. Andhra Pradesh Mahila Congress president Nannapaneni Rajakumari, who was also travelling by the same bogie, immediately gave a message to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with the help of Narayana’s cell phone.

The district revenue machinery was immediately alerted even as the local police swung into action to take up relief operations. DIG Mazharuddin, police superintendent T Krishna Prasad, collector G Nageswara Rao, RDO J Murali and others supervised the rescue operations.