Head of India’s railways resigns after derailment in Uttar Pradesh

The head of India’s railways quit yesterday after another accident on the nation’s crumbling network.

The Kafiyat Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, injuring at least 74 people. It happened in the early morning when a lorry carrying building sand overturned near Auraiya.

On Sunday, 23 people were killed when a train derailed in northern India, in the fourth major disaster on the country’s railways this year. Fourteen coaches of the train went off the rails, also in Uttar Pradesh.

K Mittal, who had been head of the railways since 2014, will be succeeded by Ashwani Lohani, a former engineer credited with helping Air India turn its first profit after more than a decade of losses.

“Mr Lohani has been appointed as the chairman of the railway board. Mr Mittal’s resignation has been accepted,” an official said.

The government has been under pressure after the accidents. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu said yesterday that he had offered his resignation to the prime minister, who had asked him to delay.

Accidents are relatively common on India’s huge but badly maintained railway network, which operates 9,000 passenger trains and carries about 23 million passengers every day. The network is the world’s fourth-largest by distance and the country’s main form of transport.

It is poorly funded and fatal accidents occur often, which experts attribute to underinvestment and poor standards.

A 2012 government report described the loss of 15,000 passengers to rail accidents every year in India as a massacre.

Pressure has built up on the Indian government as fatalities and accident numbers increased