61 hurt in India train derailment
AGEING NETWORK: It follows crash that killed 146 people last month
ATRAIN derailed in India yesterday, injuring 61 people, said police and rail officials, the third significant accident in recent months that has raised concern about the safety of the ageing rail network.
The train came off the tracks and crashed near the northern city of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh state in the morning.
“Our latest assessment is that 61 people were injured in the accident and two sustained grievous injuries,” said Anil Kumar Saxena, spokesman for Indian Railways.
He said the train had just pulled out of the station and its speed was “rather slow”.
Television footage from the scene showed mangled, toppled carriages. Two coaches had fallen off a bridge into a small canal, while some passengers were seen picking up their
AFP pic luggage near the tracks.
India’s railway system is the world’s fourth largest. It runs 11,000 trains a day, including 7,000 passenger trains carrying more than 20 million people. But, it has a poor safety record, with thousands dying every year in derailments, collisions and other accidents.
On Nov 20, at least 146 people were killed when a train derailed near the same city. In July, a train rammed into a van taking children to school at a level crossing in north India, killing eight.
near Kanpur in
Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has promised to replace old tracks and upgrade safety systems.
The government spends more than 90 per cent of the railways’ revenues on operational costs, leaving little for upgrades of the colonial-era system.
Some analysts estimate that the railways need 20 trillion rupees (RM1.3 trillion) in investment by 2020, and India is turning to partnerships with private companies and seeking loans from other countries to upgrade the network. Reuters