Relief train reaches Mumbai with accident survivors

MUMBAI - A relief train carrying the survivors of the Gyaneshwari Express accident that killed 131 people reached Mumbai at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Special barricaded sections were made on the platform number 5 of Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Kurla where the train arrived, a Central Railway spokesperson said.

Porters in a rare gesture volunteered to carry the luggage of the survivors free of cost.

“This was done so that they passengers do not have to worry about carrying the luggage themselves after going through the trauma and having made such a long journey,” the spokesperson said.

Family members surrounded their kin as they got down from the train. The atmosphere became emotional as many broke down in tears while some thanked god for saving their kin.

A tired passenger, who survived the accident, told reporters: “I was in coach S10 and I saw how some 20 people were stuck on the engine of the goods train that rammed into the first four-five coaches. It was ghastly,” he said.

The survivor mentioned that help came only after an hour-and-a-half.

The Mumbai-bound passenger train derailed after a part of the track was allegedly sabotaged and was rammed by a freight train in a Maoist bastion of West Bengal Friday.