Seven coaches of Shaktipunj express derails in UP

At least seven coaches of the Shaktipunj Express derailed near Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. No one was injured.

According to railway officials, the incident occurred near Obara around 6 a.m. The train from Howrah in West Bengal was headed to Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

East Central Railway Spokesperson Rajesh Kumar told IANS, all stranded passengers were shifted to the unaffected front coaches of the express and brought to Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh.

"The train with the rest of the passengers left from the accident site around 7.30 a.m.," Kumar said.

"General Managers and other senior officials have rushed to the accident spot and work was on to restore the traffic," he said.

The reason for the derailment was not yet clear. However, Kumar ruled out the possibility of broken tracks, and said, "The matter is under investigation. We can only comment after the enquiry is complete."

This is the fourth major train derailment in a month and first after Piyush Goyal took over as the new Railway Minister on Monday.

--IANS

aks/in