ROURKELA: The wagons of an iron-ore laden goods train rolled around 22 km in reverse direction and four of them overturned after getting derailed at Bimlagarh in Sundargarh district on Tuesday evening. During reverse roll, it knocked down a railway employee and a token porter though no injury has been reported so far. The incident occurred at remote Bimlagarh area of Koida Mining Circle on Rourkela-Bimlagarh route of South Eastern Railway (SER), around 75 km from here.
The route is mostly used for transportation of iron ore. The goods train enroute to Rourkela was stationed at Barsuan railway yard. At around 6 pm, a railway employee NK Chatterjee shunted (joining) the engine with the wagons after which the train suddenly started rolling in reverse and knocked down Chatterjee and a token porter and diverted towards the Rourkela- Bimlaglarh track.
Gradually the wagons picked up speed and covered around 22 km crossing six open level-crossings and finally overturned at Bimlagarh where the track ends. Two wagons climbed up over the others before causing extensive damages to the railway tracks, traction lines and the boundary walls adjacent to the track. Two relief and rescue trains from Rourkela left for the site carrying personnel of engineering, operating and traction departments.
The restoration work may take around 48 hours. SER sources informed normally after completion of train shunting (joining of the train with the wagons) a railway memo is issued to the driver to operate the train. SER senior divisional commercial manager and spokesperson Manish Pathak was not immediately available for comment.