DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Three wagons of a goods train derailed near the Kurukshetra railway station in Haryana on Monday, when Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was present at the station to flag off a special train, officials said.

The goods train was coming from the Kaithal side when three of its wagons went off the tracks near the Kurukshetra railway station, they said. The derailment caused significant damage to the wheels of the affected wagons, with one believed to have struck a railway electric pole, leading to disruptions in the overhead power supply system, the officials said. Senior railway officials and technical teams rushed to the spot after the incident and launched a rescue and restoration operation. Railway employees are also inspecting the tracks and the overhead equipment lines to assess the extent of the damage, the officials said. The derailment affected train movement on the line, they said.

The incident occurred at a time when Chief Minister Singh Saini was present at the Kurukshetra station to flag off a special train as part of the Somnath Swabhiman Yatra, a nationwide campaign to commemorate 1,000 years since the first recorded attack on the Somnath Temple in Gujarat, and 75 years since its reconstruction in 1951.

Assistant station master Yash Pal said the flagging off had to be shifted to platform No. 2 instead of platform No. 1 because of the derailment. Railway officials said that efforts were underway on a war footing to restore both the affected tracks and power supply systems. A probe has also been initiated to determine the exact cause of the accident, they said.

(editor@dailyworld.in)