Agartala, June 17 (Reporter) Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha declared Rs 2 lakhs ex-gratia to the next kin if any passenger from Tripura died in the unfortunate mishap of Kanchenjunga Express near New Jalpaiguri on Monday morning, which caused serious damage to four coaches. The train left Agartala at 8 am on Sunday and was scheduled to reach Kolkata in the evening. The train continued the journey with 19 coaches from the accident site carrying around 1300 passengers left for Kolkata, officials said here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the tragedy and announced an enhanced ex-gratia to Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased within hours. The announcement was made by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a social media post on X. "Enhanced ex-gratia compensation will be provided to the victims; ₹10 Lakh in case of death, ₹2.5 Lakh towards grievous and ₹50,000 for minor injuries," he said. The state government will bear the medical expenses of the passengers of Tripura affected by the accident. The officials of Tripura Bhawan in Kolkata have been instructed to visit the accident site to monitor the rescue and rehabilitation of the victims, the Chief Minister said. The Chief Minister said, "Spoke with Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw regarding the collision of Kanchenjunga Express by a Goods train in New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal and he informed me that rescue operation is going on in full swing and assured that all necessary support would be given to the victims and their families.” The initial investigation revealed that this was a case of signal disregard. Besides five passengers, three railway staff who lost their lives were identified as Guard of the Kanchenjunga Express Ashish Dey, Loco Pilot of goods train Anil Kumar, and ALP of Goods train Munna Kumar. The safe distance between the trains on the automatic territory breach was behind the accident but it is yet to be ascertained why the breach took place...////...