SAMBALPUR: Survivors of the ill-fated Hirakhand Express, who reached Sambalpur station in a special train on Sunday, are yet to recover from the shock of the midnight tragedy.
Ramendra Mohanty (43) of Cuttack, who works with a pharmaceutical company, said he had boarded the general bogie of Hirakhand Express at Jeypore station around 4 pm on Saturday. Around 11 pm, when the train left Rayagada station, he left the general coach looking for TTE to request him for a reservation berth.
About 25 minutes after leaving Rayagada station, he heard a loud noise, it felt like earthquake. “The bogie had tilted to one side and I managed to wriggle out of the coach,”, said Mohanty. Thanking his stars, Mohanty said, “I leant that at least 10 persons in the general bogie had died and I survived as I had left it minutes before.”
The experience of 32-year-old Ajit Lal was no different. He was on his way to his uncle’s house at Bhubaneswar in S-8 coach. Lal said, “ I was preparing to sleep when I heard a loud explosion and before I could realise what had happened, I was on the floor with co-passengers falling on me. After crawling out of the coach, I learnt that the train had derailed. Five passengers of the coach had died.”
The special train, carrying the survivors of Hirakhand Express, reached Sambalpur around 3.10 pm, said Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Sambalpur division, KD Rao.