The number of yearly incidents jumped from three to four until 2022 to almost 12 to 14 since 2023, with multiple deadly crashes claiming hundreds of passengers' lives.
Published Feb 18, 2025 | 11:43 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 18, 2025 | 11:43 AM
Synopsis: The Indian Railways has experienced an alarming four-fold increase in accidents under Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s watch. The period has witnessed several catastrophic events, including India’s worst railway accident in June 2023 when a collision in Odisha killed 296 passengers, alongside numerous derailments, fires, and infrastructure failures across the country’s rail network.
A stampede at the New Delhi railway station caused 18 deaths on 15 February, while the people were trying to board special trains arranged for the Maha Kumbh in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. The incident is the latest in a growing list of accidents that have plagued Indian Railways in recent years.
A cursory analysis of news reports from the past five years reveals an almost fourfold increase in accidents under the incumbent Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The number of yearly incidents jumped from three to four until 2022 to almost 12 to 14 since 2023, with multiple deadly crashes claiming hundreds of passengers’ lives. Vaishnaw took office in June 2021.
The period since has witnessed the worst accident in Indian railway history – the June 2023 Odisha collision that killed 296 passengers.
These accidents, which span the entire network, are characterised by infrastructure collapses and operational inadequacies. Incidents range from major accidents in West Bengal, Mizoram, and Odisha in the East to Tamil Nadu, Kerala in the South, Maharashtra, and Gujarat in the West, and Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Delhi in the North.
Incidents prior to 2022 often involved maintenance crews or isolated derailments, but recent years have witnessed an increase in catastrophic multi-train collisions and systemic failures.
Furthermore, the pattern of response after each incident remains unchanged: Authorities announce investigations and compensation packages, with limited info on their results, while systemic fixes remain seemingly unimportant.
The Suryanagri Express derailment injured 10 passengers in January 2023. In April, a man set fellow passengers on fire on board an express train in Elathur, Kerala, killing three people, including a two-year-old girl.
In May, a coach of the Chennai-Bangalore Double Decker Express derailed near Bisanattam with no casualties.
June proved particularly fatal, with multiple incidents: The Odisha collision killed 296 people and injured more than 1,200, marking the highest death toll in Indian railway history, after three trains, including the Coromandel Express and Bengaluru-Howrah Express, collided near Bahanaga Bazar station.
The same month saw three separate derailments: The Nilgiri Mountain Railway near Coonoor, the Chennai Central–Vijayawada Jan Shatabdi Express, and a Chennai suburban local EMU near Basin Bridge station, though none had casualties.
In July, three coaches of the Falaknuma Express caught fire in Telangana.
August saw 36 migrant workers die in the Mizoram under-construction railway bridge collapse. Nine people died and 20 suffered injuries in a tourist train fire near Madurai, Tamil Nadu when an illegally smuggled cylinder exploded in a special coach of the Bharat Gaurav train.
In September, fires broke out in the Humsafar Express in Gujarat, and an EMU train derailed at Mathura station in Uttar Pradesh.
October was especially deadly – the North East Express derailment killed four and injured more than 70 in Bihar, followed by the Vizianagaram collision killing 14 and injuring 50 in Andhra Pradesh. The Suhaildev Superfast Express also derailed near Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
November saw eight passengers suffer injuries in the Delhi-Darbhanga Superfast Express fire near Etawah, again in Uttar Pradesh.
In December, a 133-year-old water tank collapsed at Barddhaman station, killing three and injuring 34.
2024 began with at least two deaths and many more injuries after being hit by a train in Jamtara, Jharkhand in February.
June again witnessed multiple incidents: a fatality on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, another on Kerala’s Millennium Express due to an improperly chained berth, and the deadly Kanchanjunga Express collision in West Bengal where 11 people died and 60 suffered injuries when a freight train hit the former near Rangapani station due to over-speeding and faulty signals.
July brought two major derailments: the Dibrugarh-Chandigarh Express derailment killing four and injuring 32 near Jhilahi, Uttar Pradesh and the Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailment near Jamshedpur, Jharkhand killing two and injuring 20.
In August, the Sabarmati Express derailed near Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh after hitting a boulder.
October saw another major collision when the Bagmati Express crashed into a stationary goods train at Kavaraipettai station near Chennai, causing derailment, fire, and 19 injuries.
The month also witnessed a locomotive detachment incident with the Vivek Express near Katpadi Junction, Chennai and a 69-year-old’s death from a loose brake shoe near Madurai.
A diesel multiple unit caught fire between Runija and Naugaon stations in Madhya Pradesh
Four passengers were injured when illegal firecrackers carried by the passengers ignited on a passenger train from Jind to Delhi near Sampla in Haryana.
Four sanitation workers from Tamil Nadu including two women were killed after the Kerala Express ran over them in Palakkad district.
A 35-year-old railway worker was crushed to death after being trapped in the buffers between the locomotive and the power car,
A freight train derailed in the Peddapalli district of Telangana, resulting in the cancellation of 39 trains and the diversion of 61 trains.
Just two months into the year, 2025 has already seen two high-profile incidents: the Jalgaon accident killing 13 when Karnataka Express struck Pushpak Express passengers after a false fire alarm in January, alongside the Delhi railway station stampede.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
