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Odisha train crash: Chaos at Bengal’s Howrah station; survivors recount horror
Two trains, including the ill-fated 12864 Sir M Visvesvaraya Howrah Superfast Express, reached Howrah station on Saturday, carrying around 1,200 passengers, some of whom were injured
The helpline number at West Bengal’s Howrah station hasn’t stopped ringing since it was launched after the train accident at Balasore in Odisha that killed close to 300 people, officials said.
“Calls have been pouring in almost every second and this has been continuing since Friday evening. Those attending the calls are not even getting time to have their tiffin or go to the toilet,” a railway official at Howrah station said on condition of anonymity. “We are not just getting calls enquiring about the accident, but also from passengers about trains that have been cancelled.”
The relatives of Purnima Gayen of Basanti in South 24 Parganas tried to call the helpline at Howrah and Kharagpur multiple times on Friday night, to no avail. Her three sons-- Haran Gayen, Nishikanta Gayen and Dibakar Gayen-- were on the Coromandel Express.
“Early on Thursday we came to know all of them have died. They had gone to work in Andhra Pradesh and were travelling in the train. When we heard of the accident on TV, we tried to call all helpline numbers. They were all busy,” an unnamed relative told media persons. “We couldn’t even contact the three brothers. Later, we were told by one survivor, who was from an adjacent village, that they have died.”
On Saturday, two trains, including the ill-fated 12864 Sir M Visvesvaraya Howrah Superfast Express, reached Howrah station, carrying around 1,200 passengers, some of whom were injured.
Uttam Das, a resident of Nadia who works at a leather factory in Bengaluru, was yet to come out of the horrific experience he had been through less than 24 hours ago.
“It was around 7 pm and we were sitting in the general compartment. There was a deafening noise and the train came to a halt with a huge jerk. Initially, I couldn’t understand anything. But when I came out of it, I saw mangled compartments and dust,” said Das, who reached Howrah at 1.30pm on the SMVB Express.
While 21 compartments of the 12841 Coromandel Express were derailed, the rearmost two bogies of the 12864 SMVB Express got derailed. The train with rest of the compartments reached Howrah on Saturday.
Railway authorities had set up medical booths and ambulances were kept on standby. Food packets and water bottles were there in the camps and Railway Protection Force personnel were making announcements to guide passengers who needed medical assistance or wheelchairs.
As soon as the train came to a halt, there was a heavy rush with hundreds of passengers stranded overnight at the accident spot disembarking.
“Please leave me. I have had enough. I want to go home. My mobile phone has got switched off and I can’t even speak to my parents,” Moumita Banerjee, an engineering student returning home from Bengaluru, told reporters.
In the morning, a special relief train had come to Howrah. It brought in around 200 stranded passengers, mostly on board the Coromandel Express.
“I was going to work with my father (Muhammad Sayeed) and brother-in-law (Sheik Azad) in Chennai at a leather factory. We were in coach S-5 of the Coromandel Express. I still can’t believe that we are all alive when so many on the same train have died. It is like a second life to us,” said Muhammad Roshan Ali, 19, of Park Circus in Kolkata.
The country’s oldest and busiest station with more than a million footfall everyday was chaotic on Saturday with many trains cancelled, leaving passengers stranded. While around 48 trains were cancelled by South Eastern Railway on Friday, around a dozen trains were cancelled on Saturday.
In the afternoon, the operator arranged a special train that left Howrah for Balasore with family members of those who were killed or injured and admitted in various hospitals.
