Railways shows its humane face

Officials Console Many, Hold Up Train To Take Mourning Relatives To Jajpur
K Praveen Kumar & V Ayyappan TNN

Feb 15, 2009

Chennai: Southern Railway officials made the Jajpur-bound Coromandel Express wait for more than two hours at Sulurpettai to accommodate the relatives of Atanu Datta, who died in the Friday’s accident. When Kaushik Rane, his wife Myna Khan and son Abhishek Khan reached Chennai Central for the third time within 24 hours to catch the Coromandel Express, the train had left the station an hour ago. They almost collapsed in grief. Officials, who were moved by the helplessness of the family which had just lost a member to the tragedy, put humanitarian consideration ahead of everything else and did all they could to console the sobbing relatives. They then took an immediate decision to hold the train at Sulurpettai and sent Datta’s sister and nephew in a suburban train to Sulurpettai. They also sent a railway official to accompany them. Datta, a resident of Kolkata, was on his way to Chennai after his brother-inlaw, who owns a textile business, called him to join his business. Since a direct train was not available, he took the Jajpur route. “We called him here to work with me. Now we have lost him,” said Kaushik Rane, trying hard to fight tears. Rane’s family was the first to visit the railway help desk set up immediately after the Coromandel Express accident at Jajpur Road on Friday night. “I tried his mobile, but there was no response. Then I tried another passenger’s number in the same coach and he picked up the phone and said the situation in that compartment was bad. We told the relatives that he might have lost his cell phone in the impact. I was getting prepared to hear the worst even as I prayed for his safety,” S Anantharaman, chief commercial manager (passenger marketing), told The Times Of India. Datta was on seat number 44 of S3 coach which was one of the four compartments which had capsized in the accident. His relatives from Kolkata, who had gone to the accident spot on Friday, have decided to take his body back to Kolkatta. Mohammed Aslam, who sells suitcases, and M D Mashelludhin were the next to come rushing to the help desk enquiring about the plight of Aslam’s 13-yearold daughter and brother. He was in tears when he saw his brother Manzar Ali’s name in the injured passenger’s list. The railways provided them free passes and took them to Jajpur in the special coach attached to the Coromandel Express, which left Chennai on Saturday morning. Khusnoor Khan and his wife rushed to Chennai from Mysore, as soon as they heard about the accident. They were relieved to know that their family members had escaped unhurt, except for his brother’s daughter suffering minor injuries.