Utkal Express derailment: Railways says Rs 25 lakh as ex-gratia disbursed to victims so far

New Delhi: The railways said on Sunday that it has distributed a total of Rs 25 lakh so far as ex-gratia to the affected passengers and the kin of the dead in the Utkal Express accident. The number of the dead stood at 20 and those injured in the derailment in Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday evening was 92, Member, Traffic, Railways, Mohammad Jamshed told reporters in New Delhi. “Forty percent of the passengers are insured under the e-ticket scheme. Other than that, the railways pay its own compensation as well as ex-gratia,” he told reporters in Delhi. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has announced that Rs 3.5 lakh will be paid to the kin of the dead, Rs 50,000 to the grievously injured and Rs 25,000 to those with minor injuries. “We have paid a total of Rs 25 lakh as of now,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_3953477” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A mangled coach of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express train being hauled off the tracks by a crane, at the accident site in Khatauli near Muzaffarnagar on Sunday. PTI[/caption] Northern Railways had earlier said 21 people had been killed and 97 injured in the Utkal Express derailment. Under the insurance scheme started by Prabhu in 2016, passengers are given the option of insurance cover at the time of booking the ticket on the website of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). If a passenger decides to opt for it, then the premium amount is added to the ticket cost. The cover includes death or total disability insurance of Rs 10 lakh; partial disability insurance of up to Rs 7.5 lakh; hospitalisation expenses of up to Rs 2 lakh. The facility is available to those who book e-tickets through the IRCTC platform and does not include the suburban trains. The scheme is available only for confirmed and reservation against cancellation (RAC) ticket holders and covers all passengers except children below 5 years and foreign citizens. The railways also provide compensation under the Railway Act, 1989 to passengers who are victims of accidents. Under it, the amount of compensation payable in case of death is Rs 4 lakhs. For injuries, the amount varies from Rs 32,000 to Rs 4,00,000 depending on their nature. This, however, brings down the compensation figure announced by Northern Railways in the Utkal Express derailment in its release which said that the number of injured was 97 and the total deaths in the derailment was 21. “We have come to this list after meeting passengers in seven hospitals. Our director general, health services provided us this list of injured and dead. Ninety-two is our final figure of the injured out of which 22 are grievously injured. Seventy people have simple injuries and 20 are dead,” Jamshed said. “However, we assure you that every passenger even if he is suffering from the most minor injury will get assistance from the railways whether medical or ex-gratia,” he said. Jamshed said that eight coaches of the derailed have so far been put on the track and the other five will be “rerailed” by tonight. “The traffic on that line will be restored by 10 pm today,” he said. The affected passengers have been sent to Haridwar by buses and taxis and all arrangements have been made for them, he said.