Several coaches of the Chandigarh Dibrugarh Express derailed in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday in which two passengers were killed and 20 people were injured.
The 15904 Chandigarh Dibrugarh Express derailed between Gonda-Mankapur railway section in the north eastern railways.
Earlier there were reports of four casualties but later the railways confirmed only 2 deaths. The injured were admitted to the Gonda district hospital.
Railway ministry has ordered a high level probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety( CRS) to detect the cause behind the accident. The North Eastern railways too have ordered a separate enquiry.
Railways has announced an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh for families of the deceased, Rs 2.5 lakh to those with grievous injury, and Rs 50,000 with minor injury.
General Manager, North Eastern Railway, Soumya Mathur; Divisional Railway Manager/Lucknow Aditya Kumar, and other senior railway officials were on the spot. Relief and rescue work is being done on war footing.
According to the relief commissioner railway, 21 coaches out of the total 23 derailed in which 5 were AC along with the pantry car.
However, reports said that water logging on the tracks could be the reason behind the incident though the train was running with caution.
NDRF and SDRF teams helped to rescue the trapped passengers inside the AC coaches.
CPRO Pankaj Singh of North Eastern Railway said that several trains have been diverted through the Ayodhya route.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too instructed the district officials to rush to the spot.