Five days after it met with a tragic accident near Balasore in Odisha, the 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express resumed services on Wednesday. The train left the Shalimar station from West Bengal’s Howrah district at 3.25 p.m. from platform number 2.
The general compartments of the train were crowded, filled mostly with migrant workers going to other States for work. “I am not at all scared. It will be good if there is increased surveillance,” Pintu, a migrant worker who is travelling to Visakhapatnam said. Another migrant worker who boarded the train said he is heading to Kerala for work but admitted feeling a little scared. “There is fear but we have little option but to take the train and report to work,” he said.
Ranjit Mandal, along with a few other villagers from Sandeshkhali in the State’s South 24 Parganas, has boarded the train in the hope of finding his 18-year-old son who is still missing after the accident on June 2. “The name of my son is Dipankar. He is 18 years old. We were in Odisha but could not find him. We are going again in the hope of finding him,” the father said.
Long queue
Hours before the train arrived at the platform, there was a long queue in front of the train’s general compartment. By the time the train was ready to depart it became difficult to enter the general compartment. Young men were huddled on the upper berths with their bags beside them. Those who could not manage to get places to sit were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the compartment. Amidst the usual din of the railway journey, their faces were expressionless. In the crowd were some who were taking the journey to other States for the first time in search of work. Not many were keen to share their names and districts they hailed from.
Dipak Sharma, who is going to Bhubaneswar, said so many lives were lost for no fault of the people but for the mistake of the Railways. “In future the Railways should be more careful when it comes to passenger safety,” he said.
The passengers taking the train also comprised families seeking medical help in southern States, armed forces personnel reporting back to work and job-seekers taking the train for an urgent interview.
A spokesperson of the South Eastern Railway said the tracks had been repaired and the train would follow its usual route. According to the West Bengal government, so far 103 people from the State have lost their lives and 30 to 40 people are still reported missing. Most of the deceased were migrant workers and were travelling in the general compartment when the train met with the accident on June 2.
