Tag: Odisha train accident

A 10-member CBI team, which is in Odisha to probe the triple train accident, inspected the tracks, signal room and talked to railway officials at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district on Tuesday.

At least six officers The Indian Express spoke with said the Coromandel Express took the loop line instead of the main line and collided with a goods train most likely because of “tampering of the location box” near the Bahanaga Bazar railway station.

So far, the collision of the Coromandel Express with a goods train and the Bengaluru–Howrah Superfast Express has resulted in 278 casualties and over 1,200 people have been injured.

Meanwhile, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar has started DNA sampling of the claimants as over 100 bodies from the accident lie unclaimed at different hospitals. PTI quoted an official as saying that the bodies have now been shifted to the five containers where they can be preserved for a longer period. The official added there should be no hurry in disposing of the bodies after DNA sampling as they can be preserved in a container for six months.

Experts have been engaged from outside Odisha to embalm the bodies to preserve them for more days. More than 12 anatomy and forensic experts from AIIMS, Nagpur, and Raipur have been engaged in the process.

Of the 278 dead, 177 bodies have been identified while another 101 need to be identified and handed over to their families. Further, the Government Railway Police (GRP) said that around 40 bodies had no visible injury marks and are believed to have died of electrocution.

To help families locate their kin affected by the accident, three online links with photos of those killed and lists of passengers admitted to different hospitals have been prepared. The railways appealed to people to use the three links — link of photos of the deceased ( https:rcodisha.nic.in/Photos%20Of%20Deceased%20with%20Disclaimer.pdf ), link of lists of passengers undergoing treatment in different hospitals ( https://www.bmc.gov.in/train-accident/download/Lists-of-Passengers-Undergoing-Treatment-in-Different-Hospitals_040620230830.pdf ), and link of unidentified persons under treatment at SCB Cuttack ( https://www.bmc.gov.in/train-accident/download/Un-identified-person-under-treatment-at-SCB-Cuttack.pdf ). The Railway Helpline number 139 is working round the clock for connecting the families/relatives of passengers, while the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Helpline number 18003450061/1929 is also working 24×7.

The Odisha government also announced that it will bear the transportation cost of bodies of the triple train accident victims to different states, Chief Secretary P K Jena said. Jena further clarified that the state government has no intention to hide the number of deaths in the accident after the toll was revised from 288 to 275 and then 278. He said the toll was revised owing to the double counting of some bodies.

The government has asked insurance companies to immediately report their exposures in terms of coverage and claim payments towards the victims of the triple train accident. The Department of Financial Services (DFS) has asked the General Insurance Council, the official representative body of general insurers, and Life Insurance Council, the official representative life insurers, to collect data from their members about their exposures to the accident victims by June 12.

Even as the accident site in Bahanaga village saw the resumption of normal passenger train traffic, the Railways has ordered a week-long countrywide safety drive on signalling systems with special emphasis on the existing “double locking” arrangement of its signalling apparatus at stations.

The NDRF, whose nine teams withdrew from the accident site on Monday after confirmation that no live or dead victims were present, reported a deep impact on its personnel. Atul Karwal, the director general of the disaster response force, said that an NDRF personnel deployed in the rescue operation has been hallucinating blood every time he sees water while another rescuer reported losing his appetite.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) recorded the statements of injured engine driver Gunanidhi Mohanty and his assistant Hajari Behera, who are undergoing treatment at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, officials said. “Both the drivers are stable. While Mohanty was taken out of the ICU on Monday, Behera is awaiting a head surgery,” South Eastern Railway (SER) Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Aditya Choudhury told PTI.

States pressed their authorites into action to bring back the dead or injured to their hometowns, with a special train arriving in Chennai on Monday, carrying 17 survivors.

The second relief train from Odisha’s Balasore district reached Howrah railway station on Sunday around 2 pm. “The train was carrying six passengers. Three of them were given first aid and one was sent to the NRS hospital and another to Howrah District hospital,” SP Howrah, Pankaj Dwivedi, told The Indian Express.

While Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw remained in Odisha since the accident, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also visited the injured at Odisha hospitals. “The nation stands with the families who lost loved ones in the Balasore rail accident. It is time to join hands, stay together, and pray for the swift recovery of injured. My salute to the entire rescue team, security personnel, railway minister Sh. Ashwini Vaishnaw ji, Indian Railways staff, and the Odisha government,” tweeted Union minister Anurag Thakur.

Britain’s King Charles III sent a condolence message to President Droupadi Murmu, expressing his profound shock and sadness over the deadly train accident, recalling his fond memories of a visit to Odisha 43 years ago. “Both my wife [Queen Camilla] and I have been most profoundly shocked and saddened by the news of such a dreadful accident outside Balasore. I would like to express our deepest possible condolences to the families of all those who have so tragically lost their lives,” Charles was quoted as saying in a statement issued by Buckingham Palace.

The Opposition rejected the CBI probe into the accident and 12 political parties, including Congress and Left parties, demanded the formation of a Special Investigation Team and resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to pave way for an impartial inquiry. The parties, including Congress, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) Liberation, CPI(ML) Red Star, All India Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party, RJD, NCP, RPI, AAP and Samata Kranti Dal.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying law enforcement agencies cannot fix accountability for technical, institutional and political failures. “The CBI is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents. The CBI, or any other law enforcement agency, cannot fix accountability for technical, institutional and political failures. In addition, they lack the technical expertise in railway safety, signalling, and maintenance practices,” Kharge said in his four-page letter.

During his US tour, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the only ideology that the BJP espouses is to make excuses not accept the reality. Addressing the Indian diaspora in New York, Rahul said in the wake of a similar train tragedy when the Congress was in power at the Centre, the then minister in charge of the Railways had owned moral responsibility and resigned.

Banerjee slammed the Railway Board’s decision to hand over the inquiry into the Odisha train accident to the CBI saying that “it is not the time to suppress the truth”. The West Bengal CM said, “We want people to know the truth. It is not the time to suppress the truth. I also gave Gyaneshwari Express case to CBI but no result came. 12 years over, but we see no result. CBI handles criminal and accident cases. The Railway Safety Commission is there,” she further remarked.

Among the first responders to accident were a schoolboy who helped the injured contact their families as his mother provided first-aid, a pharmacy store owner who administered free tetanus injections, a group of villagers who hand-stitched empty cement bags to make ‘stretchers’ to carry the injured and a retired government employee who took care of about 50 children through the night. PTI also reported about a medical representative from West Bengal’s Midnapore town who helped seven people reunite with their relatives through social media.