Jalgaon train accident: Many victims were Nepalese labourers, security guards

The Pushpak Express departs from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus a day after the accident in Jalgaon. Pic/Satej Shinde

A number of passengers who died in the Pushpak Express accident were either working as labourers at construction sites or working as security guards and house helps in and around Mumbai. A few passengers of the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express, who got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident, were run over by the Karnataka Express heading from Bengaluru to Delhi on the adjacent track in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district on Wednesday evening. Thirteen have been declared dead and 15 injured.

Radha Bhandari, daughter-in-law of deceased Kamla Navin Bhandari, 43, who worked at Colaba, said, "We were coming to Mumbai to join work but now there is no hope left. We have received the cheque and compensation money from the railways and have been asked to submit bank details. But money cannot compensate for the loss of life. We are originally from a village in Nepal and are now going back there."

Ramrang Pasi, companion of deceased Lacchiram Khatru Pasi, also from Nepal said, "I was accompanying him and the only close one travelling with him. Lacchiram used to work at Mumbra at a construction site and we were on the way there when this unfortunate incident happened."

Raju Vishwakarma, who lost two of his family members - his mother-in-law Javakala Bhate Jaykadi, 60, and Himu Nandram Vishwakarma, 11 - was devastated. "We have received money from the government, but what do we do with it? We were coming back to Mumbai from Lucknow as I work as a security guard at Bhiwandi. Our family belongs to Koshi Province in Nepal."