Summary:
Agra: The number of casualties in train derailments across the country has been steadily rising. Railways data accessed by TOI show 489 people died in 824 derailments between January 2006 and November 2017, with the highest number of fatalities (193) in a decade reported during 2016-17. Of these 16 derailments, four took place in the North Central Railway (NCR) zone in which three people died and losses to the tune of Rs 1.64 crore were incurred. Three other derailments in NCR were of goods trains, leading to total losses of Rs 44.20 lakh.In the South Eastern Railway (SER) zone, two derailments were reported while the East Central Railway (ECR) saw six derailments during the same period. The derailment of the Indore-Rajendranagar Express on November 20, 2016, near Pokhrayan in Uttar Pradesh saw 152 deaths, and 39 people lost their lives when the Hirakhand Express derailed in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district on January 21, 2017..