CHENNAI: A few minutes after 12 coaches of Train number 12578 Mysore-Darbhanga Bagmati superfast express derailed post its engine's collision with a stationary goods train at 8:27pm on October 11 in Kavaraipettai station 50 km north of Chennai, it was chaos with passengers trying to find their feet, railway officials and cops trying to rescue them, and shocked residents lending a hand.
Majority of the passengers on the train, of which 12 coaches derailed, were daily wage construction labourers or those working in construction sites of Chennai, Bengaluru and Mysore who were on their way to different places in Bihar like Barauni and Darbhanga. The air in the small town on the highway near the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border was rent with Hindi, Bhojpuri and Tamil.
When the collision happened, they were jolted; Babita Kumari (24) was sitting with her three young boys Gulshan, Vivek and Shivansh in one of the air-conditioned compartments and said that the next minute she was on the floor and the coach was topsy-turvy.
“We didn’t know what was happening,” she said with a smile three hours later, while waiting on the Chennai-Kolkata National Highway-16 for a bus arranged by Tamil Nadu police to take them to Dr MGR Chennai Central.
Her husband Gaurav Kumar, a worker in a Bengaluru construction site, was with them too. How the family, like several others, traversed the 1.6 km from the Kavaraipettai railway station to the Highway was unclear; several others, including women and children without footwear, were seen struggling to lug their bags on the small, while some passengers were carrying their things in big paint boxes, but well-laid municipality roads.
Sajjan, an elderly resident of Barauni, carrying two big suitcases while trying to hurry into another bus on the Highway, said he was in a state of shock, but had to hurry to grab a seat and get back home.
Lalu (26), a carpenter from Barauni who works in Bengaluru, was in an unreserved coach of the train. “I am just grateful to be alive. We don’t know if we have to pay for these bus rides,” he said, before getting onto one. Like most others, he was on his way back to Bihar for the Pooja holidays which is celebrated with great fervour there.
Local Kavaraipettai residents rose to the occasion; many on two-wheelers helped ferry the stranded passengers from the station to the highway. Some helped them carry the luggage, while a provision shop was kept open beyond 3am in case anyone needed supplies.
At the Kavaraipettai railway station, many were in a state of despair. Women with toddlers, groups of middle-aged men and well-to-do families with big suitcases were waiting for help.
Ali and 10 of his friends were arguing with railway officials about how their suitcases were trapped under the derailed coaches and that they did not know how to go to Dr MGR Chennai Central to board the special train arranged by Southern Railway to take them back home.
In fact, a law graduate Manish Kant complained to Indian Railways on X (formerly Twitter) that his brother and family who were on the train, were safe and returning to Chennai on their own, but that his two trolley luggage with important documents were stuck under the seat of the derailed coach.
The collision itself was so loud that a few cops of Thiruvallur district police shopping a few streets away in the local market thought a bomb had gone off. Prakash, who runs a small shop just opposite the station, recalls a loud blast-like sound that frightened him.
He later saw a fire (from the parcel-cum-diesel generator coach which caught fire) too. The cop and Prakash said that help from police and railway authorities, who rushed from nearby Ponneri and Gummidipoondi stations, came within 30 minutes of the accident.
Tamil Nadu police’s Inspector General (North) Asra Garg was at the spot herding the passengers into the buses on the highway and later at the station, with a posse of cops trying to manage the situation. 90 personnel from the National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) from nearby Arakkonam had also rushed to the spot within a couple of hours to help with the rescue efforts.
A few social service organisations including Seva Bharati of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) and political party Indiya Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi (MJK) were at the spot to help passengers as well as authorities with rescue efforts.
With no proper approach road available to the track where the derailed coaches lay, TN Fire service personnel and railway officials had a tough time with the rescue operations. Southern Railway also set up a small medical camp near the station. Several ambulances were available to ferry the injured, if necessary.
Southern Railway officially said that seven passengers were injured in the accident. Three passengers with serious injuries were taken to Stanley Medical College Hospital, while four with minor injuries were treated at the Government Hospital in Ponneri.
Stranded passengers from the Bagmati Express were transported by buses to Ponneri and then to Chennai Central by two special suburban trains early in the morning.
Upon arrival at Chennai Central, railway doctors conducted medical check-ups, and passengers were provided with food and water before being boarded onto a special train bound for Darbhanga, via Arakkonam, Renigunta, and Gudur. This train departed Chennai Central at 4.45 am, the statement from Southern Railway added.
Southern Railway also reported that track restoration work at the accident site was progressing rapidly. In the meantime, all trains scheduled to run via Gudur-Chennai were diverted through Renigunta, Arakkonam, and either Perambur or Chengalpattu. Additionally, intercity express and MEMU trains on the Chennai-Tirupati, Arakkonam-Puducherry, and Chennai-Puducherry routes were cancelled.