Kaifiyat Express derailment: Passengers reach Delhi on special train

Kaifiyat Express derailment: Boxes of poori-sabzi and small water boxes were stacked up high, while women medical officers from the railway hospital next door wore white coats over their clothes to get ready for the patients.

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Three days after the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed leaving 22 dead in Muzaffarnagar, 12 coaches of the Delhi-bound Kaifiyat Express came off the track as the train hit a dumper in Auraiya district early on Wednesday.

Nobody “official” knew with certainty when the ‘special train’ ferrying over thousand passengers of the the Kaifiyat Express which had met with an accident, would arrive at the Old Delhi Railway Station. There were at least six different guesses, the railway officials gave it a broad window: “anytime between 3 pm and 4.30 pm”.

The train finally pulled in on platform 16 at the Old Delhi Railway Station at 4.33 pm. This gave the railway officials ample time to get the platform cleaned, the tracks hosed down with water and men to pour bleaching powder on piles of faeces on the tracks. The book store and tea stall were asked to shut shop early and the platform itself was cordoned off with a long rope. Also Read: 81 injured as Kaifiyat Express derails in UP

“We have deployed 50 RPF officers, another 50 ticket checkers and 50 porters, to help people out,” said Old Delhi Station Director Sandeep Gahlot. “We have made arrangements for food, first aid and taxis to drop the seriously injured home. This will all be free of cost.” Boxes of poori-sabzi and small water boxes were stacked up high, while women medical officers from the railway hospital next door wore white coats over their clothes to get ready for the patients. The painkillers and antacids were neatly stacked on the table.

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It was 2.50 am on Wednesday morning when a dumper collided with the Kaifiyat Express forcing the coach that Usha Saini was sleeping in to wobble. Two coaches down, Gulshan and her young daughter fainted from the shock. Sangam Verma, 22, was in one of the nine coaches that derailed. “My mind was blocked when the collision happened,” he told The Indian Express. “When I went back to look for my bags, I found two women trapped and helped them get out of the train,” he said. Also Read: Suresh Prabhu offers to resign, PM asks him to ‘wait’; Congress says go ‘if iota of morality left’

From Auraiya district where the incident occurred, the passengers were administered first-aid, said Naveen Mahajan. “We were taken to Tundla around 1 pm, given lunch and at 2 pm asked to board a special train to Delhi,” he said, adding the railway staffers had looked after the passengers well.

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Meanwhile, 19-year-old Pratiush Mishra looked for his mother and cousin in the sea of passengers who deboarded on the station. “This morning I heard my mother had been injured and I know they are on this train. But their phone is switched off.”

Yet, the derailment forcibly changed plans for many traveling between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi/NCR. Mohammad Arshad was booked on a 2 am flight to Saudi Arabia on Thursday morning to take up a new job. “I should have picked up my passports and tickets this afternoon. But I have only reached Delhi. I don’t know where I am going to find the money to change my flight tickets,” he said.

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