Three trains went off the tracks — one in the national capital, the other in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra and two wagons of a goods train derailed near Khandala, Maharashtra — within hours of each other today, the latest in a string of derailments that saw the exit of Suresh Prabhu as the railways minister.

The first derailment occurred around 06:25 am, when seven coaches of Jabalpur—bound Shaktipunj Express jumped the tracks near the Obra Dam station in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. It was the third such mishap in the State within a month.

There was no report of any injury in the mishap, Railway ministry spokesperson Anil Saxena said in New Delhi.

As the train, which was coming from Howrah, went off the track, the rail traffic on the Chaupan—Singharauli route was disrupted.

Soon afterwards, the engine and power car of the Ranchi— Delhi Rajdhani Express derailed near Minto Bridge at 11:45 am as it was approaching the Delhi station, injuring one person and raising questions about the safety of passengers.

Platform number 15 at the Delhi station was closed for restoration work, a railway official said.

Sonbhadra incident

Even as the authorities and the passengers dealt with the aftermath of these two derailments, news came, again from UP, that a track fracture was detected between Farrukhabad and Fatehgarh, minutes before the Kalindi Express was scheduled to pass.

Alert locals managed to get the Delhi—Kanpur Kalindi Express stopped before the damaged portion of the track, police officials said.

Sonbhadra, which shares borders with four states (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh Jharkhand and Bihar), has a history of Left—Wing Extremist activities. But Additional Superintendent of Police Awadesh Singh ruled out any Naxal angle behind the derailment of the Shaktipunj Express.

Official sources said the train was running at a speed of about 40 km/hr which might have prevented any injuries being caused to the passengers.

East Central Railway PRO RK Singh said the seven rear coaches of the train had derailed. They were later detached and traffic resumed at the derailment site.

All passengers were accommodated in the remaining coaches and the train left within an hour, officials said.

Third in a month in UP

This is third derailment incident in UP in less than a month and the first since Piyush Goyal was handed over the responsibility of the Railways in the recent Cabinet reshuffle after Prabhu had offered to step down taking moral responsibility for previous accidents.

On August 20, 14 coaches of the Kalinga—Utkal Express had derailed in Muzaffarnagar, killing at least 23 people and leaving scores injured.

Three days later, nine coaches of the Delhi—bound Kaifiyat Express had derailed in the Auraiya district, leaving around 100 passengers injured.

Third derailment

Two wagons of a goods train derailed near Khandala, the third train accident reported in the country today, said a Central Railway spokesperson.

Two wagons of the train derailed at around 3:55 pm, even as the railways was dealing with two derailments which happened earlier in the day.

“Two wagons of the goods trains derailed in Khandala this afternoon. We are in the process of clearing the tracks,” said Sunil Udasi, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway. This is the third case of derailment today.

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