It is a historic place, identified with
Kishkindha, the ancient Vanara (monkey) kingdom associated with Ramayana.
Indian Railways serve millions every day. The trains though have 5 digit nos. are better
identified by their names. The names are
often interesting and are named after important places, rivers, and often
destinations - and sometimes, the trains
are in the public eye for wrong reasons – because of accidents. Now ‘Hampi Express’ is in news – as collision
with a goods train has killed at least 24 people and more than equal number
injured. There are train accidents which
we read with concern and after a few months things are forgotten.
Hampi is a village in northern Karnataka state,
located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the
Vijayanagara Empire. The name Hampi
reportedly is derived from Pampa , which is the old name of the Tungabhadra River
Hampi Express connects Bangalore
and Hubli, and is a popular option to
reach Hampi from Bangalore Bangalore for Hubli at 9.00 PM from the Bangalore City Bangalore
Sadly, the Bangalore-bound Hampi Express
crashed into the stationary goods train at Penneconda railway station early on 22nd
May 2012. Four coaches were derailed and
one of them caught fire, reports say. A BBC
reports states that most of them died in the fire that broke out in one of the
coaches. A railway official was quoted
as saying that most of the victims were
labourers who were travelling to Bangalore from Bellary
There are reports that the driver could have
overshot the signal – whether it was human error or a system failure, train
ramming into a stationary train should not have happened in the modern day with
so many gadgets assistance. Hundreds of
valuable human lives are lost in accidents and the safety continues to be a low
priority area.
Way back in Nov. 1956, a ghastly train
accident occurred in Ariyalur near Trichy in Tamilnadu when 100s of passengers
were feared dead - and immediately after the accident Lal
Bahadur Shastri resigned as Railway Minister…….. a resignation may not change
the fate of the victims, but sure sign that someone takes responsibility and
expresses concern in ensuring that such things do not repeat themselves.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar .
Accident photos : courtesy : bbc.co.uk
I have a neighbour working in railways. He stays most of the time in his house. He goes to office and within an hour he will comeback. Some railway staff are not doing their job. They are there only for the salary. Who cares safety. A big peracentage of officials are not doing their job properly in India.
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