Six days after the tragedy, the death toll stands at 288. Here are just a few of the victims’ stories
tretching 40,000 miles, India’s train lines are often described as the pulsing arteries of the country, carrying life, work and opportunity from the icy upper reaches of the Himalayas to the coconut groves of the south.
Yet the train would never reach Chennai. As the Coromandel Express switched tracks as it passed by Bahanaga Bazar station in the state of Odisha, reportedly due to an incorrect green signal, the train collided into a stationary freight train laden with iron ore. Several carriages from the train were thrown into the air with the force of the collision, with the “general class” carriages among the worst affected.
Sheikh and the group were heading to Chennai, where they planned to work as stone masons for the next six months, as was common among the men of Madhubanpur. They could work for half the year earning far higher wages in Chennai, then return home to harvest their fields. But at around 7pm, minutes after he had hung up the phone, the collision happened and their carriage derailed with catastrophic consequences. No one in Sheikh’s group survived.Photograph: Supplied
“Our breadwinners have been killed, we do not know how to face this situation,” said Hemani. “We have lost our husbands, who is responsible for their life?”The brothers – who both had children at home – were travelling to Chennai for work in construction. The Coromandel Express was a familiar journey for the brothers. Every year, they would travel south for seven to nine months, to find employment on construction sites.
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