DHANBAD/RANCHI: As many as 11 express, mail and passenger trains under Dhanbad railway division were cancelled, diverted or short terminated on Tuesday following the derailment of two goods train between Khalari and Ray stations. At least 23 coaches of the two freight trains were derailed and four staff were injured in the accident that took place around 2.30am.While the cause of accident was yet to be ascertained, a section of railway officials blamed it as a “handiwork of insurgents” after eyewitnesses reported a “huge blast” on the tracks. However, police refuted the involvement of rebels, quoting forensic reports. State police spokesperson Ashish Batra said, “After receiving initial reports, we sent a forensic team to the site for spot inspection but there were no evidence of any blast.”Public relations officer of East Central Railways (Dhanbad division) P K Mishra said, “The crew of the goods train initially heard a blast and found some of the bogies of both the trains were derailed. We have launched a probe to ascertain the cause of the derailment.” He added, “We have begun track repairing work on a war footage. Senior railway officials are camping on the spot to monitor the work.” Mishra refused to provide technical details of the cause of the accident.However, another railway official said on condition of anonymity, “The impact of the first derailment was such that a few coaches of that train were flung on the adjacent track. The second train, which was coming from the opposite direction on the other track, collided with the derailed coaches.”After the incident, the movement of some of the passenger trains were impacted. Ajmer-Santragachi Express was halted in Daltonganj for a couple of hours at 3.15am and was later diverted via Tori-Lohardaga route, while Jammu Tawi-Tatanagar Express was diverted to a different route. Jabalpur-Howrah Express was diverted via Garhwa Road-Sonenagar-Gaya-Dhanbad while Howrah-Jabalpur Express diverted via Dhanbad-Gaya-Sonenagar.

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