Indore–Patna Express
Derailment of the Indore–Patna Express that claimed 150 lives, on Sunday has failed to prevent passengers from further cramping the train as it made another voyage to the Bihar capital from here on Wednesday.
The bi-weekly train which runs between Indore and Patna on Saturday and Wednesday has resumed its service . It has departed from Indore at 2 pm and will be reaching Rajendra Nagar (Patna) at 5.05 pm on the next day.
All four general coaches of the express train were jam packed with hardly any seat, which had left unoccupied while many, holding waiting tickets for the AC and sleeper classes, were seen traveling sitting on the floor when the locomotive chugged out of the station at 2pm.
Passengers are however not undertaking the journey, 84 hours after the mishap, with a sense of security. Concerns were also there writ large on the faces of relatives and friends who came to see off their dear and near ones.
Express train after the accident
The express train has a total capacity of carrying around 1560 passengers– 864 in sleeper coaches, 256 in AC and also nearly 440 in four general and two seating-cum-luggage rakes (SLR). But often passengers beyond the capacity board the train.
Even on Wednesday, before the empty rake have arrived at platform 45 minutes before the departure there were long queues of people waiting to board the train in the general bogie. Even railway officials admit that general bogies of the train are often overcrowded.
The railway official has claimed that the passenger pressure is generally more on Wednesdays when the train goes via Lalitpur and Sultanpur as the route has more important destinations.
When contacted, Western Railways’ senior public relation officer Jitendra Kumar Jayant said, “The Indore – Patna Express has also departed on schedule time after all safety and maintenance clearance.”
