JOIN USBuilding on overnight search and rescue operation, the railways on Sunday deployed high-tech cranes and scores of workers to clear the tracks even as the town of Khatauli tried to come to terms with the tragedy.
Two heavy-duty 140-tonne cranes were pressed into service at the crack of the dawn to clear the derailed coaches.
Thirteen coaches of the high-speed Utkal Express derailed on Saturday, with one of them crashing into a house close to the tracks leaving 23 passengers dead.
A group of curious onlookers gathered at the site of the accident on Sunday morning, as two coaches were hauled and put off track on the ground beside it.
Linesmen and other workers from nearby places shovelled away the unwanted stones and new concrete sleepers were laid to reinforce the ill-fated tracks.
Work is currently under way to haul an overturned coach, which had rammed into the facade of a local college, while another sleeper coach, which had rammed into a house, shattering its frontage, is being restored on the ground.
“The train had 23 coaches out of which 13 had derailed. It was running at a speed of about 100 kmph when the accident took place,” said Delhi Division Divisional Railway Manager R N Singh.
Six of the derailed coaches were severely damaged.
Badly mangled coaches are posing a tough challenge in carrying out the work, which has been going on in full swing after the rescue operation by the NDRF got over around 3 am.
PTI