DEVOTEES STRANDED AT PANKI AS FREIGHT TRAIN DERAILS NEAR KANCHAUSI

KANPUR September 21: Thousands of devotees who came to Panki on the auspicious occasion of Budhwa Mangal were left stranded at the station as a freight train derailed near Kanchausi station in Auraiya district.

Yesterday Budhwa Mangal was celebrated in the city with religious festivity. Thousands of devotees flocked the famous temple at Panki for getting a glimpse and blessings of lord Hanuman, the presiding deity of the temple, on this auspicious day. Many of these devotees had come from as far as Etawah.

The Railways had done extensive preparations for this particular occasion keeping in view the large number of people who come here from far off places. Apart from the usual passenger trains, six trains including five express trains namely Jodhpur Hawra Express, Janta Express, Sangam Express, Unchahaar Express, and Allahabad Mathura Express were given stoppage at the Panki station from September 20-22 for better handling of the heavy traffic of passengers due to Budhwa Mangal.

According to the Chief Regional Supervisor at Panki station Mr. H. R. Wagle a freight train No. 7796 coming from Ghaziabad derailed near the western outer of Kanchausi station at around 8:30 a.m. yesterday when a pressure tank beneath a wagon burst off. Five wagons of the train were derailed in this incident severely affecting the traffic on both up and down tracks as OHE tripped.

An overworked Mr. K. K. Rai, the Station Master of Panki station told that it took more than six hours to restore the OHE and the traffic. All the passenger trains had to be cancelled and the express trains were running late as a result of this. He also said that the load on the station more than doubled during Budhwa Mangal.

The devotees had to face a lot of problems due to the cancellation of the passenger trains in particular and the platform at Panki station was rather overflowing with devotees. Brij Bhushan from Kanchausi, one of the devotees, reflected that the cancellation of passenger trains affected the common people like him more as they stop at even the small stations whereas express trains do not. An elderly man, Shyam Singh, from Rura said that he had been waiting at the station for a train since 4 p.m. Ashok from Jhinjhak said that he wondered how he would be able to get inside a train, even if one did come, as there was such heavy rush of the passengers at the station.