By IANS
Visakhapatnam : At least three passengers were killed and 40 injured when 11 coaches of a speeding express train derailed near this coastal city in Andhra Pradesh, officials said Tuesday.
The Nagercoil-Howrah Gurudev Super Fast Express ran off the tracks around 11 p.m. Monday between Duvvada and Gopalapatnam railway stations, about 600 km from here. The reason for the accident was not known.
The injured were admitted to the King George Hospital here. The condition of four of the injured was stated to be critical.
Fortunately, the loss of lives was minimal as the accident occurred at a place where there were earthen bunds on both sides of the tracks, preventing the coaches from collapsing. This also helped many to jump off the slanted coaches.
And since the accident site was about 15 km from Visakhapatnam, medical teams reached the spot quickly, minimizing the loss of lives. Ambulances run by the Emergency Medical Research Institute (EMRI) were also pressed into service.
A spokesman for the South Central Railway told IANS that three passengers were killed in the accident.
They were identified as M. Prasad Rao, 51, from Visakhapatnam, and Virendra Jain, 21, and Sashi Swain, 30, both from Orissa.
The accident occurred a few minutes after the Howrah-bound train from Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu left Duvvada railway station.
Police and rescue workers swung into action to pull out passengers from the derailed coaches. A special train carrying doctors and medical relief reached the accident site.
"The train was moving at high speed. We were preparing to get down at Visakhapatnam when we heard a thud. We were badly shaken. It took some time to realize our coach has jumped the rails," said a passenger who escaped unhurt.
Railway officials said the stranded passengers, a majority of them from Orissa and West Bengal, were sent to Horwah by a special train Tuesday morning.
A railway official said train services were not badly affected in the region because the parallel line was still open.
However, about a dozen trains between Visakhapatnam and other coastal cities like Vijayawada, Machilipatnam, Tenali, Guntur and Kakinada have been cancelled.
A few long distance trains between Howrah-Chennai, Howrah-Hyderabad, Bhubhaneswar-Mumbai and Puri-Tirupati were running behind schedule, the officials said.
Efforts are on to remove the derailed coaches with cranes and the rail track is likely to open for traffic late Tuesday or early Wednesday.