Chandigarh-Dibrugarh train accident: Four dead, several injured as train derails in UP's Gonda district

At least four coaches of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh train derailed in the Gonda-Mankapur region of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. The train, with number 15904, was derailed at 2:37 pm according to a statement from Railways.

At least four people have been reported dead in the incident.

The cause of the mishap might be due to a possible attempt of track sabotage, as per officials, who are privy to the development.


They said that the Indian Railways is examining possibility of track sabotage as the train driver is said to have heard an explosion before the derailment.

Read More: Train Accident Live Updates


Rescue operations
A senior Railways Ministry official said passengers of the derailed train, who are fit to travel, are being ferried to Mankapur Junction (the nearest station from the accident site) in buses. A special train will continue the onward journey to Dibrugarh.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's office said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has cognisance of the train accident in the Gonda district. He directed the officials to reach the spot immediately and expedite the relief work. He further instructs for proper treatment of the injured.

Senior railway and local administration officials are at the spot to oversee rescue operations. One NDRF team each was sent from Lucknow and Balrampur to Gonda. 5 ambulances were deployed for rescue operations in the train accident and orders have been given to send more ambulances to the spot. First aid is being given to the injured. The injured are being shifted to the hospital. SDRF teams sent from three districts to expedite relief operations, said relief commissioner of Uttar Pradesh.

In a Tweet on X, Adityanath said, "The train accident in Gonda district is extremely sad. District administration officials have been directed to carry out relief and rescue operations on a war footing and to take the injured to the hospital on top priority and provide them proper treatment. I pray to Lord Shri Ram for the speedy recovery of the injured."


Assam Chief Minsiter Himanta Biswa Sarma said his government was in touch with the authorities concerned following the accident.

Second accident in less than two months
This comes a month after the Kanchanjunga express accident that claimed at least 10 lives. Improper instructions along with inadequate counselling of train running and operations staff had led to the June 17 accident. The Commissioner of Railway Safety after the accident had said that there is an urgent need to overhaul train operations across Indian Railways to prevent such accidents from recurring. It also said that frequent malfunctioning of automatic signalling was defeating the purpose of deploying the mechanism.