2 close shaves for Rajdhani

A day after the Sainthia train tragedy in which 66 people were killed, the New Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express had two near-mishaps in the early hours of Tuesday. HT reports.

A day after the Sainthia train tragedy in which 66 people were killed, the New Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express had two near-mishaps in the early hours of Tuesday.

HT Image

Twice in a span of less than three hours, the locomotive of the premier train got detached from the coaches as the train was passing through Chandauli district in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Passengers waited for seven hours before the problem was fixed. Luckily, the coaches didn't derail, nor did another train come hurtling down the track.

P K Chakraborty, spokesman, Mughalsarai Division, said the coupling connecting the engine to the coaches broke.

The first detachment took place 15 minutes after the train left Mughalsarai station. Engineers took three hours to fix the coaches back, but before the train had covered 25 km, the engine decoupled again.

Finally, another engine was brought from Mughalsarai for the train to resume its journey.