The train accident at Bahanaga Bazar of Baleswar is one of the worst train disasters in India. It is also the worst accident in the last two decades.
The train accident involving two passenger trains and goods train near Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district on the evening of 2 June 2023 has claimed at least 275 lives so far and left 900 people injured, many of them seriously.
The accident occurred around 6.55 pm when the Coromandel Express going from Shalimar station in West Bengal to Chennai got derailed and collided with a goods train standing at the Bahanaga Bazar station. As a result, the goods train crashed with the Howrah Superfast Express going from Yesvantpur station in Bengaluru to Howrah.
The train accident at Bahanaga Bazar of Baleswar is one of the worst train disasters in India. It is also the worst accident in the last two decades. Here are India’s other 10 most significant train accidents.
10 Worst Train Accidents
1. The worst train accident in India claiming over 600 lives occurred on 6 June 1981 on the track between Mansi and Saharsa in Bihar after seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fell into the Bagmati river. Rescue operation stopped after the recovery of 250 bodies.
2. On 20 August 1995, the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Purushottam Express collided with the Kalindi Express near Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh killing at least 358 people.
3. At least 290 passengers were killed on 2 August 1999 after the Avadh Assam Express from New Delhi and the Brahmaputra Mail from Dibrugarh collided at Gaisal station in Assam. Many Indian Army personnel going to be posted at the border were among those killed.
4. On 26 November 1998, around 212 passengers were killed after the Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express collided with six derailed coaches of the Frontier Golden Temple Mail near Khanna in Punjab. The accident occurred after the Frontier Golden Temple Mail got derailed and its coaches crashed into the Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express running on the adjoining track.
5. Around 170 passengers lost their lives after the Howrah Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express got derailed between Khemashuli and Sardiha in the West Midnapore district of West Bengal and then hit goods train on the adjoining track on 28 May 2010. The police alleged that the accident was due to sabotage by the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), which never claimed responsibility.
6. On 23 December 1964 cyclone caused the Pamban-Dhanuskodi passenger train to wash away along with the track. At least 150 passengers lost their lives as a result.
7. The derailment of the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express near Rafiganj station in Bihar on 9 September 2002 following heavy rain left 140 passengers dead.
8. On 28 September 1954, at least 139 people were killed after a train plunged into the Yasanti river in Andhra Pradesh.
9. On 2 September 1956, at least 125 people were killed after the collapse of a bridge caused a train accident near Mahabubnagar in Telangana.
10. In the worst train accident in the pre-Independence era, on 17 July 1937 at least 119 passengers were killed when an express train from Kolkata (then Calcutta) fell into a water body near Bihta station in Bihar.
This article is written by Priya Ranjan Sahu