No lessons learnt: Three train derailments in New Delhi in past three months

Passengers on board the Ranchi-New Delhi Rajdhani Express had a narrow escape on Thursday after the train got derailed barely 200 metres away from the New Delhi station.

A departmental inquiry was ordered in derailment of Ranchi Rajdhani Express on Thursday, but the railway authorities seem to have learnt no lessons from similar incidents over the past three months at New Delhi railway station.

New Delhi Railway Station is the busiest station in the national capital handling over 2,500 trains and an average daily footfall of about five lakh. In picture is the Ranchi-New Delhi Rajdhani Express that derailed on Thursday (Mohd Zakir/HT PHOTO)

The Rajdhani incident was the third derailment since June 27 at New Delhi, the busiest station in the national capital handling over 2,500 trains and an average daily footfall of about five lakh.

In the fourth incident on August 22, an EMU train got ‘tilted’ at platform number three as it started to pull out of the station.

New Delhi railway station is located right next to headquarters of Delhi division of Northern Railway, which houses offices of top officers. The accident site on Thursday was barely 300 metres from the division office.

Sources said the repeated accidents at the station have raised eyebrows within the department about maintenance of tracks right under their nose.

Sources said questions have been raised over the functioning of the engineering department which is responsible for track maintenance. The department is headed by an additional divisional railway manager (ADRM) rank officer—the second senior most officer in a division.

“I have no idea about inquiry report related to the previous incidents as I have just joined. I have ordered an inquiry into the Thursday incident. The committee will have representative from all branches concerned and it will look into the reasons behind the incident, besides giving recommendations to check such incidents,” divisional railway manager (Delhi), Anshul Gupta told Hindustan Times.

The committee has been given a deadline of ten days for submitting the inquiry report.

Gupta was posted last month after the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed in Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district. In a major crack down, the then DRM RN Singh was sent on ‘leave’ by the railway board along with the northern railway general manager.