Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered immediate relief measures to be taken and asked for ambulances to be rushed from Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli, the nearest districts to Vizianagaram, his office said in a statement.
The minister also issued orders to coordinate other government departments to initiate disaster-relief measures.
The accident comes just months after India’s state-run railways suffered their worst train crash in two decades when 292 people were killed. In that accident, a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped off the tracks and hit another passenger train coming from the opposite direction.
Federal police arrested three railway employees on charges of culpable homicide and causing evidence to disappear.
Indian Railways, the fourth largest train network in the world, is a state monopoly run by the Railway Board. The board reports to the federal Railways Ministry.
The rail network is undergoing a US$30 billion transformation with new trains and modern stations under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to boost infrastructure and connectivity.
On Sunday, Modi said on social media platform X that he had spoken with the railways minister.
“Authorities are providing all possible assistance to those affected,” he said.