The massive train accident at Bahanaga in Odisha’s Balasore involving two passenger trains and one goods train on Friday, June 2, has so far cost 270 persons their lives and injured over 900 others. Preliminary information released by the Railways indicate that the Coromandel Express headed to Chennai from West Bengal collided with a static goods train, causing the passenger train to derail. The Yeshwantpur-Howrah Superfast Express running on the parallel track crashed into the Coromandel Express and derailed.
Speaking to a television channel, Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena said there had been around 270 deaths according to the information coming in from the district officials. “We expect to find more bodies. Our focus now is to rescue as many people as we can. Right now, there are seven national and four state disaster rescue teams,” he said.
Jena pointed out that the biggest challenge right now was to extricate the injured and the dead in two compressed coaches which are lying on top of the other. “It will take two or three hours to complete it. We cannot use a crane to lift the coach. We are using machines to cut into the coaches and extricate people from it,” he said. Bodies are yet to recovered from a badly mangled bogie that is still on tracks.
He also said that 200 people had been discharged from the hospitals so far after being treated for minor injuries. Another 200 people had been sent to other hospitals in Bhubaneswar as their injuries were too advanced to be treated locally. Authorities have already begun the task of handing over bodies to relatives after autopsy. “We are asking relatives to provide some sort of identification like Aadhaar as evidence and if they can provide such details, we are handing over the bodies,” Jena said.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visited the accident site on Saturday morning along with Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav. In view of the accident, the CM declared state mourning for a day. No state celebration will take place on June 3 throughout Odisha. Speaking from the control room last night, CM Naveen had said that the first concern of the rescue operations would be to take care of the living survivors.
Ex-gratia compensation announced
The Prime Minister's Office announced that an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh will be given to the next of kin of each deceased in the train mishap. The injured would be given Rs 50,000. Earlier on Friday night, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had announced ex-gratia compensation of Rs 10 lakh in case of death and Rs 2 lakh towards grievous injuries and Rs 50,000 for minor injuries.
One-day state mourning in Tamil Nadu and Odisha
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin declared one-day state mourning following the Balasore Train Accident in Odisha. Earlier today, the Odisha government also declared one-day state mourning on June 3, Saturday.
Derailed Coach details
The Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Kharagpur stated on Friday night that coach number B2 to B9, A1 and A2 of the Coromandel Express got capsized. Coach number B1 and engine of the train got derailed while H1 and GS coaches are still on the rail.
In the SMVT Bengaluru - Howrah Superfast Express (No.12864), 1 GS coach got damaged on rail. Rear side GS and 02 bogies derailed and capsized while coach number A1 to engine still on the rail.