A quick look at the number of railway accidents under Suresh Prabhu’s tenure

Mumbai bound Duronto Express derailed early morning on Tuesday as the rains washed away parts of the tracks in Maharashtra's Titwala district.

Railway officials said that the derailment happened due to landslide, when 9 bogies and the engine of the Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto express derailed.

This accidents is just 10 days after the derailment of Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district, which claimed the lives of at least 23 people.

This derailment comes at a time when the Indian Railways is already reeling under a series of railway accidents and derailments over the year, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had offered to resign.

According to data, as provide by the NCRB - A total of 29,419 cases of railway accidents were reported, showing an increase of 3.7% during the year 2015 over 2014 (28,360 cases). 29,419 railways accidents left 4,055 persons injured and caused 26,066 deaths during 2015.

• NCRB recorded - Maximum railway accidents were reported in Maharashtra accounting for 26.5% (7,806 out of 29,419 cases) followed by Uttar Pradesh (15.1%) (4,431 cases).
• These two states have also reported highest fatalities in railways accidents, accounting for 18.1% (4,719 out of total of 792 persons died in railways accidents due to mechanical defects (like poor design, track faults, bridge/tunnel).
• Sabotage by extremist/terrorist/others led to loss of 41 lives in railways accidents during 2015.

Here are the other railway accidents over the years under the tenure of Suresh Prabhu -

• Utkal Express derailment - The Kalinga Utkal Express derailment - in which 14 coaches of the train was derailed, at Khatauli in Muzaffaranagar on Aug 19, claimed the lives of at least 23 people and at least 156 people were injured in the accident.
• Hirakhand Express derailment - In January this year, nine coaches and one diesel engine of the 18448 Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express derailed in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district, killing 48 passengers, and injuring 68. This accident occurred due to the train's collision with another train on the parallel track.
• Indore-Patna Express - One of the most tragic train accidents that happened in November this year, and claimed the lives of 150 people and injured over 150. The derailment happened in Kanpur as soon as the train left from Pukhrayan station, on the outskirts of Kanpur.
• Kalka-Shimla derailment - A chartered train from Shimla to Kalka derailed on September, 2015. The train was occupied by 36 British tourists and a tour guide. 2 of the tourists died and 15 were injured in the accident.
• Duronto express - Nine coaches of the train derailed in Kabulburgi town in Karnataka, resulting in 2 deaths and seven injuries.
• Kamayani Express and Janata Express - Both the trains derailed in Madhya Pradesh in August, 2015 dude to flash floods in the area, killing 31 passengers and injuring over 100.
• Rourkela-Jammu Tawi Muri Express - The derailment in UP's Kaushambi on May 2015 claimed the lives of 5 and injure 50 passengers.
• Janata Express derailment - On March 2015, the Dehradun-Varanasi Janata Express derailed in Rae Bareli district as the brakes of the train failed. This massive accident killed 58 passengers and injured at least 150.
• Bangalore-Ernakulam Intercity Express - 9 bogies of the train derailed near Anekal on the outskirts of Bengaluru on February 2015. The accident killed 10 passengers and injured over 150.

The frequency of railway accidents and derailments have indeed raised a question on the authorities and safety of passengers. With the ever increasing number of railway accidents, it's time that the Government does the needful to improve the present scenario.

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