The Gauhati rail disaster occurred on 1 August 1999, when two trains carrying 2,500 people collided at the remote station of Gaisal, 310 miles from the city of Gauhati in West Bengal. The crash was at such high speeds that the trains actually exploded upon impact killing at least 285 people. August 1 is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Guwahati is the commercial capital of Assam and the gateway to the seven northeastern states of India. ... West Bengal (Bengali: পশ্চিম বঙ্গ, Hindi: पश्चिम बंगाल, Poshchim Bôngo) is a state in the eastern region of India. ...

The crash occurred at about 1.30am, when the Awadh Assam Express from New Delhi was stationary at the station. The Brahmaputra Mail from Dibrugarh, packed with soldiers and security police heading for the border regions at very high speed, through a signalling error, was transferred onto the same track as the express train. Nobody noticed the error on either train, or in the signals office, until the Brahmaputra Mail train crashed headlong into the front of the Awadh Assam Express. The engine of the Awadh Assam was thrown high in the air, and passengers from both trains were blown into neighbouring buildings and fields by the force of the explosion. The Humayuns Tomb, situated in New Delhi, has an architectural design similar to the Taj Mahal. ... Dibrugarh is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. ...

The line was blocked by wreckage, and the Gaisal emergency services were utterly overwhelmed, as fire swept through the ruined vehicles and station buildings, killing many of the injured people trapped in the trains. Many vehicles and aid support services had to undertake the 14 hour drive from Calcutta to reach the site, by which time many of those they could have helped were already dead. Those who were picked up by rescuers were taken to hospitals in Kishanganj and Islampur, which were also overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. This article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. ... Kishanganj is an administrative district in the state of Bihar in India. ... Islampur is a town and a subdivision in the district of North Dinajpur, West Bengal, India. ...

Heavy rains helped dampen fires the following day, and rescue workers began trying to separate the twelve mangled carriages of the train and identify the bodies contained inside. Many were unrecognisable and never identified.

The official death toll released was set at 285 killed and over 300 injured in the crash. Unofficial totals have claimed that over 300, 400 or even 500 were killed, including 90 soldiers, but because of the nature of the crash and fire, as well as the large number of ticketless people who may have been on the trains, these bodies could not be separately identified. There has also been speculation that explosives carried on the military train may have been the cause of the explosion following the impact, rather than the trains themselves. This has been dennied by the Indian military, but has remained a controversial issue.

This was the worst Indian rail disaster since the Firozabad rail disaster in 1995, and is comparable to the Bihar train disaster of 1981, in which 800 people were reported to have died. A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river. ...

External links

• Initial CNN Report
• Later CNN Report on the Crash
• Associated Press Report