1956 Mahbubnagar train accident

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1956 Mahbubnagar train accident
1956 Mahbubnagar train accident
Details
Date2 September 1956
Locationrailway bridge near Mahbubnagar
Coordinates 16°45′02″N78°04′09″E / 16.75056°N 78.06917°E / 16.75056; 78.06917
Country India
Line Metre-gauge railway
OperatorGovernment-owned Central Railway
Incident typetrain plunges into the water
Causecollapsing of a bridge due to torrential rain
Statistics
Trains1
Deaths125
Damagerailway bridge
train

The 1956 Mahbubnagar train accident was a train accident in Hyderabad state, India on the Secunderabad-Dronachalam line between Jadcherla and Mahbubnagar on 2 September 1956. A train fell into a river killing at least 125 passengers after a bridge collapsed as a result of damages by torrential rain.

Contents

It was at the time the worst train accident ever in India and the accident is still among India's deadliest train disasters. [1]

Less than thee months later, a very similar disaster, the 1956 Ariyalur train accident in Tamil Nadu, became India's latest and most deadly disaster when another train fell into the Marudaiyaru River, killing over 150 passengers when a bridge collapsed after torrential rain.

Event

During the 1956 India floods, in the night of 2 September 1956, a single span 37-metres long railway bridge was heavily damaged by flooding in Hyderabad state, on the Secunderabad-Dronachalam line between Jadcherla and Mahbubnagar 5 miles from Mahbubnagar. [2] [3] [4]

Just after midnight the bridge collapsed when a train tried to cross the bridge. The train and two passenger carriages plunged in the flooded river. A third carriage with second and third class passengers and a postal carriage with mail sorters remained hanging on the bridge. [5]

At least 125 people were killed in the disaster. [2] Only 22 victims of the two carriages in the water survived. [5] Victims were stuck in the train carriages and others were thrown into the water. Forty bodies were recovered downstream, up to a mile from the scene. Bodies were transported to Hyderabad for identification. Most of the victims came from Secunderabad or Hyderabad. [2] The mail that the train was carrying was lost. [5]

Aftermath

Shortly after the crash, a local resident cycled to Mahbubnagar, a route of 5 miles over muddy roads. The rescue operation was very difficult during the whole day due to the torrential rain. The Chief Minister of Hyderabad State Burgula Ramakrishna Rao went immediately to the scene of the accident. Officials of the Central Railways came to the disaster site by plane from Bombay. Relatives of the victims came en masse to the Hyderabad station and Secunderabad station to gain information about their relatives. [2]

Indian railway minister Lal Bahadur Shastri wanted to take political responsibility for the accident and offered his resignation to prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, but he refused. After the 1956 Ariyalur train accident a similar accident about three months later, Shastri again offered his resignation and was accepted. [6] [7]

Investigation

The conclusion of the investigation report was that the railway was to blame for the accident. It was inappropriate to have two bridges with risk guarded by only one employee. Next to that the responsible engineers were blamed. [8]

Due to the drainage basin below the creek and the amount of possible precipitation during the monsoon season, the advice was to build additional culverts under the railway line. [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "10 deadliest train accidents in India". The Daily Star. 20 November 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 125 killed in Indian rail disaster Archived 4 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine , St. Petersburg Times (3 September 1956)
  3. ↑ "Train accident between Jadcherla and Mehbubnagar. Lok Sabha Debates. Volume 6, 1956. Thirteenth Session, 1956" (PDF). Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi. 3 September 1956. pp. 39, 102. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2020– via Digital Library, Lok Sabha, Parliament of India.
  4. ↑ "Government's Decision Re. Report of Mahbubnagar Railway Accident. Lok Sabha Debates. Second Series. Volume 1. 1957" (PDF). Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi. p. 28. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2020– via Digital Library, Lok Sabha, Parliament of India.
  5. 1 2 3 "112 Killed as Train Falls In to Raging River". The Philadelphia Inquirer (in Dutch). 3 September 1956. p. 4.
  6. ↑ "NN: Lal Bahadur Shastri. "I Am Responsible"". Free India..
  7. ↑ "When Lal Bahadur Shastri sent Nehru his resignation & set a gold standard for politicians". The Print. 12 October 2019.
  8. 1 2 Railway Board (Hrsg.): The Commission of Inquiry to Ascertain the Causes of the Accident to 565 Down Passenger Train to Jadcherla and Mahbubnagar on the Central Railway, on the Night of September 1/2 1956. In: Virendra Kumar: Committees and Commissions in India 1947-73. Delhi 1976 [ND: 1988], page 213.
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