‘Passengers heard thundering noise’

10 seriously injured passengers admitted to KGH

- Condition of one Vasantha Kumar Mahanthi is said to be serious
- We heard a thundering noise all of a sudden, says a injured passenger
- Deputy Chief Minister, HRD Minister Ganta visit KGH

Visakhapatnam: Ten persons, who suffered serious injuries in the derailment of No.18438 Jungarh Road-Bhubaneswar Link train portion of Train No. 18448 Jagdalpur-Jungarh Road-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand express, were shifted to King George Hospital here on Sunday.

The 10 injured include Vasantha Kumar Mahanthi, 42, whose condition was stated to be critical, Geetanjali Bhonja, 35, her daughter Sai Suchitra Bhonja, 15, Akhe Sethi, 23, Sugandha Vikram Kumar, 27, Durga Prasad Panda, 40, Prasanna Kumar Mishra, 32, Haragovind Maharana, 28, Pradeep Kumar Panda, 36, all are from Odisha while R Srinivasa Rao, 43, is from Vizag. The doctors and staff of the KGH were attending to the injured under the supervision of superintendent Dr G Arjuna. The passengers who suffered fractures are still in a shock and could not be able to talk properly.

When asked about the mishap, injured passenger Srinivasa Rao travelling in one of the sleeper coaches said that they heard a thundering noise all of a sudden and the luggage kept on the top of the berths began falling down. “We were all shell-shocked as we were trapped in the overturned compartment, unaware of what happened for a few minutes. Later, someone came to our rescue in the darkness. How it happened we do not know. Later, in the early hours, the railway authorities shifted us to the KGH,” he said. The family members of the injured from various parts of Odisha are reaching KGH.

CM directs Ministers Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister N Chinarajappa, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Anakapalli MP Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, MLAs Vangalapudi Anitha and Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar visited the KGH on Sunday to console the injured passengers and check treatment being provided to them.

The Ministers spoke to the injured and enquired about the mishap with the help of a translator, as they are all talking in Oriya. They also discussed with the doctors and superintendent Dr G Arjuna and asked them to provide the best medicare.

Later, Chinarajappa terming the mishap as unfortunate told reporters that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed them to go the spot to oversee the rescue operations. He said so far it was officially announced 36 deaths and more than 50 injured. “The Chief Minister clearly instructed us to initiate steps for shifting bodies to respective villages with the government cost and now we are going to the spot,” he added. When asked about the reason for the mishap, he replied that it was still under investigation.

HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao expressing shock over the huge mishap, first of its kind in Uttarandhra, disclosed that the railway authorities have sent the messages to the family members of the injured. Waltair Divisional Railway Manager Chandralekha Mukherjee and her team of engineering and safety officials rushed to the spot soon after the message and the DRM has been monitoring the rescue operations personally. Anakapalli MP Srinivasa Rao said the KGH doctors’ team has been providing good medicare to the injured as the hospital has the latest equipment. “We discuss with the Railway Minister about the steps to be taken with regard to the rail safety,” he added.

Meanwhile, CPM State secretariat member Ch Narasinga Rao and district president K Lokanadham alleged that the mishap was due to the gross negligence of the railways as it has entrusted the most important track maintenance work to private parties. Stating that derailing nine compartments is not a simple issue, he charged that the accident rate has been growing due to privatrisation of sensitive and important works.

He said that the Centre is now trying to merge the Railway Budget to the General Budget and it was unfortunate that Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra was not responded at all about the mishap. He demanded the Centre pay an ex-gratia of Rs 20 lakh to the kin of the deceased and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the injured.