Kolkata-Sairang Express Derails at Digaru Near Guwahati, All 900 Passengers Safe

The locomotive and five coaches of the Kolkata-Sairang Express derailed at Digaru railway station in Assam at about 6:54 a.m. on Wednesday, November 11, Northeast Frontier Railway said in a statement. No one was killed. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma later said all passengers were safe and four people had suffered minor injuries and were being treated.

Digaru station is in Kamrup (Metro) district, on the outskirts of Guwahati. The train is Train No. 13125. About 900 passengers were on board, the railway's chief public relations officer, Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, told Pratidin Time. A special train left Guwahati for Digaru to take the passengers on to their destinations.

What the railway says happened

Northeast Frontier Railway said the derailment happened while the train was being received at Digaru station to give precedence to another train, and that the loco pilot could not control the speed. The other train was the Guwahati-Jorhat Town Jan Shatabdi Express, which was controlled at Panbari. The Coimbatore-Silchar Express was controlled at Panikhaiti, ANI reported. Relief and rescue work began at once, and the railway's general manager and senior officials went to the site. An inquiry into the derailment is under way.

The early counts differ

The railway's official statement says the locomotive and five coaches derailed and that there were no injuries. Sharma separately told ANI that six coaches had come off the tracks. "Six coaches of the Kolkata-Sairang Express derailed at Digaru railway station at around 6.54 a.m. today. So far, no casualties have been reported," he said. PTI also reported six coaches and the engine. The chief minister's later statement, that four people had minor injuries, updates the railway's first statement of no injuries. Reports also differ on the direction of travel. ANI and NE Insider describe the train as Mizoram bound, travelling from Kolkata to Sairang. PTI describes it as en route to Kolkata from Sairang. The train number and the Digaru location are agreed by all sources.

Passengers and train services

Sarma said the state government was working closely with the Railway Ministry, that stranded passengers had been given basic necessities, and that an alternative train had been arranged. Train services through Digaru later resumed, with trains on both the up and down lines running normally, ANI reported, citing Northeast Frontier Railway. The Alipurduar-Mariani Intercity Express was short terminated at Kamakhya, and the Guwahati-Haibargaon-Guwahati DMU services were cancelled. Helpline numbers were opened at several stations.

A new link for Mizoram

The Kolkata-Sairang Express is one of the trains that connects Mizoram directly with the rest of the country after the Bairabi-Sairang line brought the state capital region onto the national rail network. Disruption on the route through Guwahati also affects travel to Mizoram, the Barak Valley and Tripura. The derailment is the second involving a passenger train in Assam in under two weeks. On October 29, the locomotive of the Silchar-Guwahati Express derailed near Badarpur in Sribhumi district, also without casualties.