Nearly 50 hours after a devastating three-train accident in India left at least 275 people dead and approximately 1,100 passengers injured, train service has resumed.
Following one of the worst train accidents in the nation in decades, where two passenger trains and a freight train collided, work was finished on the section of track at Balasore in the state of Odisha.
Late on Sunday, a freight train began its trip on the reconstructed lines close to Bahanaga Railway Station. On Monday, a semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express train followed.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw signaled the departure of the freight train.
The train, which was the first to move down that section of track since the collision, was hauling coal from a port in the southern city of Vizag to the Rourkela Steel Plant in Odisha. At around 10.40 p.m., it began its journey.
On the section, passenger train service has also been restored. “The down-line rehabilitation is finished. On Twitter, he posted a video and the caption, “First train movement in sector.
At around 7 o’clock on Friday, 21 coaches from the Coromandel Express, which travels between Kolkata and Chennai in the east, and the Howrah Superfast Express, which travels between Bengaluru and Howrah in the north, derailed close to Bahanaga station.
According to railway officials, the Coromandel Express was moving at 128 kph while the other passenger train was moving at 126 kph.
Also involved was a freight train that was waiting on a parallel track. In the two trains, there were more than 3,400 passengers.
The rehabilitation effort at the location involved more than a thousand employees. Four road cranes and a 140-ton railway crane were among the large pieces of equipment deployed.
The coaches were removed from the wrecked pile after being mounted or derailed by the collision’s strong impact. They fixed the overhead lines and installed new tracks.
Authorities stated that the crash was most likely the result of human error on Sunday. According to Mr. Vaishnaw, “a change in electronic interlocking” was to blame.
Through the design of the tracks, an electrical interlocking system eliminates conflicts between the paths of several trains. The system’s goal is to guarantee that no train is signaled to proceed before the route has been determined to be safe.
