17 injured as passenger train derails in TN

Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, Mar 20 (UNI) Seventeen passengers, including five women, were injured, when seven coaches of the Madurai-Kollam passenger train derailed between Valliyur and Aralvaimozhi here, early today.

A senior railway official told UNI that the incident occurred at around 0400 hrs.

All the injured were admitted to the Nagercoil Government Medical College Hospital and Diraviyam Hospital in Nagercoil. Their condition was stable.

He said the Divisional Railway Manager, Thiruvananthapuram, Titus P Koshy was personally supervising the rescue and relief operations, which were in full swing despite heavy rains. It was expected to be completed by this evening.

Meanwhile, Southern Railways General Manager Rakesh Chopra rushed to Thiruvananthapuram by air and was on the way to the accident site by road to conduct an on-the-spot inquiry.

Train traffic in the Tirunelveli-Nagercoil section was severely affected following the derailment, with the Southern Railways cancelling/rescheduling many express and passenger trains.

The railway officials arranged special buses to the stranded passengers to reach their destinations, the official said.

A detailed probe into the incident would be conducted as soon as the restoration works were completed, he said.

For more information, the public could contact 0452-2308250, 044-25024547 and 0471-2320012.

UNI GSM BDP AS1400