PATIALA: Around 16 wagons of a goods train derailed in Punjab's Ropar district in the early hours of Monday.
The incident happened near Gurudwara Bhattha Sahib after a herd of stray bulls allegedly came onto the track. As a result, one of the stray bulls got crushed under the train.
The railway officials claimed that the incident took place between Ropar – Mianpur railway stations, near level crossing No. 43 in the wee hours on Monday at around 12.30am. The officials said that the goods train was empty as the train had unloaded the coal rake in the state-run GGSSTP thermal plant a few hours before it met with the accident at Una-Nangal dam-Sirhind branch line. The train was going back to eastern railway to be loaded again with coal.
The officials revealed that the train driver also had a narrow escape and wasn’t injured.
“Due to sudden braking, the train got derailed after one of the stray bulls was crushed under the train. The wagons also got separated after the accident. The goods train had 58 wagons. All the wagons were empty. There has been mild damage to the railway track and some poles. Around eight pairs of trains including four mail express and four passenger trains have been cancelled while the rail traffic will restart on this single track by evening. The track is being cleared by the railway officials with the help of a crane and the rescue team has been doing the job", said DRM Ambala division, Gurinder Mohan Singh.
The officials claimed that fencing on both the sides of the railway tracks on some routes has been done while on some other routes, the process is under way to avoid such incidents in future.
