After derailment,anguished wait for kin in Delhi

A K Singh,a passenger,who reached Bikaner House at 2 pm on Saturday,said,“I was sleeping and we heard a loud noise followed by pandemonium. The coach had overturned and all of us were stuck.”

Singh,who has minor injuries on the back of his head,said passengers were stuck in the overturned coach for nearly 15 minutes before being rescued by villagers. “Eventually,we made our way to Sawai Man Singh bus terminal in Jaipur and took a bus to Delhi,” he said.

A few passengers complained that the Railways failed to make adequate arrangements. “I had to take another train for Patna from New Delhi,so I decided to take a bus myself instead of waiting for the Railways. We heard the Railways was arranging buses for air-conditioned coach passengers,” Singh said.

Shyamal Mukherjee,a Delhi resident waiting for his daughter at Bikaner House around 2.30 pm,said: “My daughter Shreya called to say she was fine. She was in A-1 coach,which got derailed but no one was injured. Her term at the National Law School ended yesterday and she was coming to Delhi on vacation.

“She is on a bus now.”

Y K Sharma,spokesperson for Northwestern Railways said,“We reckon there were at least 250 to 300 Delhi residents in the train. We arranged four different buses to take them to the Capital.”