Two dead and 20 injured in train derailment in India: report

The Howrah-Mumbai Express derailed around 4:00 a.m. (Monday, 10:30 p.m. GMT) near Jamshedpur in the eastern state of Jharkhand, the Hindustan Times reported.

The accident occurred after a freight train coming from the opposite side derailed and collided with the passing passenger train.

About 18 wagons were thrown off the tracks. Rescue operations to clear the accident site are ongoing.

India has begun a $30 billion upgrade of its railway infrastructure to boost the economy and improve connectivity.

However, analysts say that while India’s aging railway system has deteriorated over time, it still has a long way to go.

According to official figures, an average of 20,000 people died in rail accidents each year between 2017 and 2021.

Defective tracks, poor maintenance and outdated signaling systems as well as human error are the main causes of derailments, according to a report by India’s top testing authority.

Last year, nearly 300 people were killed when a passenger train and a stationary freight train collided and the derailed compartments then crashed into another, fast-moving passenger train.

The worst rail accident in India’s history occurred in 1981, when a cyclone threw a train off the tracks and into a river in the state of Bihar, killing 800 people and injuring over 100.

Indian Railways, the fourth largest railway company in the world, operates around 14,000 trains daily with 8,000 locomotives on a vast network of tracks spanning about 64,000 kilometres (40,000 miles).

The trains carry more than 21 million people every day.

abh/gle/mtp