Page 41 - Odisha

19 Bihar passengers missing, 50 dead in Odisha train accident, says DMD

At least 19 people from Bihar, who were on board the Coromandel Express, are still missing after the train accident in Odisha's Balasore district on June 2 in which 288 people were killed, said the state Disaster Management Department (DMD). The missing 19 Bihar passengers on board the Coromandel Express include four from Madhubani district, Darbhanga (2), Muzaffarpur (2), East Champaran (2), Samastipur (2), Sitamarhi (1), Patna (1), Gaya (1), Purnea (1), Sheikhpura (1), Siwan (1) and Begusarai (1), said a statement issued by the Disaster Management department. "At least 50 people from different Bihar districts have reportedly died and 43 sustained injuries in the Odisha train accident," the statement issued on Wednesday night said. Of the 50 people from Bihar who died in the train accident, nine are from Muzaffarpur district, Madhubani (6), Bhagalpur (7), East Champaran (5), Purnea (2), West Champaran (3), Nawada (2), Darbhanga (2), Jamui (2), Samastipur (3), Banka (1), Bewguisarai

Goods train kills six labourers sheltering under it in Odisha's Jajpur

At least six labourers were killed and two others critically injured in Odisha's Jajpur Keonjhar Road railway station after being run over by a goods train on Wednesday, an official said. The labourers had sheltered from heavy rain under the goods train when it started rolling. "There was a sudden thunderstorm. The labourers were working at a railway siding where a goods train was standing stationary. They sheltered under it but unfortunately, the goods train which did not have an engine attached to it started moving causing the accident," said a railway spokesperson. As a result, six of the labourers were killed and two were injured, he added. The injured persons were admitted to SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack. In a statement, the East Coast Railway said, The contractual labourers engaged by a contractor for railway work took shelter under the stabled rake to get protection from the wind and rain of Norwester near Jajpur Keonjar Road (station). The reserve rake with

Odisha train crash: Rlys use AI-powered portal to identify unclaimed bodies

The Railways is using an artificial intelligence-powered website and SIM card triangulation to identify the unclaimed bodies of the Odisha three train crash victims. Of the 288 people killed in the accident on June 2, as many as 83 bodies remained unclaimed as of Wednesday, officials said. The Railways initially called a team from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to the site to take thumbprints of the dead to ascertain their identity. "That did not work out since in most cases the skin of the thumbs were damaged and prints were difficult to take. Then we thought of identifying the bodies using Sanchar Saathi which is an AI-based portal," an official said. The recently launched Sanchar Saathi web portal was put to use to identify 64 bodies and it was successful in 45 cases, officials said. Sanchar Saathi allows customers to know the mobile connections issued in their name and also track and block their lost smartphones. This artificial intelligence-based portal

Up Coromandel Express leaves Shalimar 5 days after Balasore accident

: Five days after the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express met with an accident in Odisha's Balasore killing 288 people, the Up train chugged off from Shalimar station here at 3.25pm on Wednesday, five minutes behind the scheduled departure time. As soon as the train pulled in on platform 2, there was a mad scramble to get into the general compartment and soon every nook and cranny of the two general second class coaches got filled up with people and their luggage. Ranjit Mondal, whose son has been missing since the June 2 accident, boarded the train to go to Bhubaneswar to look for his son again. Mondal from Sandeshkhali said his 18-year-old son Dipankar had boarded the ill-fated train with his friends to look for a job in Chennai. His phone has been ringing since the accident but no one is picking it up. I spoke to him minutes before the accident. He is yet to be tracked and I decided to look for him again, he said. Swati Chamoli, who is also travelling in the train, said, I'm ..

Railway ministry releases helpline number to locate affected passengers

Apart from the helpline number shared by the Indian Railways, the Ministry of Railways on its Twitter profile has also shared some other helpline numbers, including Howrah, Kharagpur, Balasore

Odisha train accident: Bihar revises death toll to 43, injured to 47

The department issued a data on Wednesday wherein 47 persons are injured and 18 persons are missing as well

Odisha train accident: 39 more bodies brought to AIIMS Bhubaneswar

Thirty-nine more bodies of those who lost their lives in the Balasore train accident were brought to AIIMS here so that these mortal remains could be handed over to their family members without any hassle after completion of the identification process, officials said on Wednesday. These bodies were taken from Balasore and kept in six hospitals in the city on Sunday but the bereaved family members are facing difficulties as they have been visiting various health facilities in search of their loved ones, they said. "Thirty-nine more bodies were received by AIIMS Bhubaneswar and put in refrigerated containers early on Wednesday," the official of the health facility said. There were initially 123 bodies in All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, and of which, 71 were handed over to families. "With 39 more bodies shifted to AIIMs, we now have 91. The families searching for their loved ones need to visit here only," the hospital official said. The East Coast Railway on ...

Bengal govt accused of diverting funds for paying Odisha train victims

As West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is all set to pay compensation cheques to the families of the victims of Odisha triple train tragedy

Odisha train crash: SCR announces cancellations of few trains till June 9

Due to derailment of Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express in Kharagpur-Bhadrak section of South Eastern Railway, at least five trains were cancelled which were to commence journey on June 6

Akhilesh hits out at BJP for giving false assurances on 'Kavach system'

The Opposition has strongly condemned the government's safety assertions regarding the Kavach system, particularly in light of the tragic Odisha train accident

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Odisha govt revises death toll in Balasore triple train crash to 288

The Odisha government on Tuesday revised the death toll in the Balasore train crash to 288. Speaking to reporters, Chief Secretary PK Jena said, 275 deaths were confirmed till Monday, and after verification of bodies, the figure was raised to 288. Jena said that 205 bodies of the the total 288 have been identified so far and handed over to their families. The remaining 83 bodies were kept at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar and other hospitals for identification, he said. "We have received many queries on the helpline numbers released by the government. We are optimistic that all bodies will be identified," Jena said. He said the state government was bearing the cost of treatment of the injured, and transportation of bodies to respective destinations. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik sanctioned Rs 1.95 crore for ex-gratia payment to the families of 39 deceased persons from Odisha. According to the government, Rs 5 lakh will be given to the kin of each deceased persons as ex-gratia. The

Train accident: For missing persons' kin, AIIMS Bhubaneswar is last hope

For Sibari, Ashok and Nizamuddin, life has been all about hospitals, mortuaries and bodies for the last four days since their relatives went missing after the train accident in Odisha's Balasore district on June 2. The trio was among hundreds of people trooped in to AIIMS Bhubaneswar to find their missing relatives. Sibari Sardar of Kolkata has been frantically searching for her husband Samar, who was returning home from Chennai on the ill-fated Coromandel Express. I searched for my husband in hospitals and morgues of Soro, Balasore, Cuttack and AIIMS Bhubaneswar, she said. Sibari, a 35-year-old mother of a child, says she was afraid to scan the album at AIIMS Bhubaneswar containing the photograph of the deceased. After mustering courage, I finally went through the it and there too I could not find my husband. I hope he is alive. Similar is the case of Odisha's Ramamani Behera. My husband had left home without informing me 16 days ago. On June 2, he called up my nephew and told h

Odisha train crash: Railway Minister Vaishnaw holds meetings with officials

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who returned to Delhi from Balasore in Odisha after reviewing the rescue and restoration work following the triple train accident, is holding a series of high-level meetings with officials here on Tuesday. After meeting senior Railway Board officials in the morning, Vaishnaw is now meeting general managers (GMs) and divisional railway managers of zonal railways. The virtual meeting which began at around 5 pm is expected to take a couple of hours to finish, sources said. In the meeting with the Railway Board officers, the minister instructed officials to draw out plans to make the railway network completely tamper proof from external elements, they said. On Monday, the Railway Board had issued instructions to all GMs to ensure that the protocol around the signalling systems are made tamper-proof. The train accident in Balasore involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, which were carrying over 2,5

Railway official had flagged 'fault' in interlocking system: Digvijaya

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday claimed a senior Railway official had flagged a fault in the signal interlocking system in February and warned of the train accident risk but the problem was not rectified which led to the Balasore train crash. The accident involving two passenger trains and a goods train claimed 278 lives and left more than 1,100 people injured. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the alleged criminal negligence leading to the train accident. "Balasore train crash is the biggest rail accident in independent India. In the initial statement of Railways, the cause of the accident was stated as a fault in the interlocking signal system, Singh claimed while speaking to reporters here. A senior railway official in one of his letters written in February, had clearly warned about the major risk of train accidents due to a fault in the interlocking signalling system and highlighted the need for its immediate rectification and improving this system

Opposition trying to score political points over train incident: Hardeep

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday accused opposition parties of trying to take "political mileage" on the recent train accident in Odisha and said the response of the government to reach out to the victims was swift to save the previous lives. He said the democracy in India is robust and no power can erode it, defending the Income Tax raids on BBC. He said the "previous actions" of the broadcaster suggested that it was in the hands of the "people with agenda on India". Puri was in Jammu to highlight the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, which recently completed its nine years in power. "My first engagement on reaching Jammu (on Monday) was a meeting with party workers. We observed a two-minute silence for all the lives lost and to pray for recovery of those injured in the train accident (on June 2)," the Union Housing and Urban Affairs minister told reporters at the BJP headquarters here. Responding to a question about the opposi

Coromandel Express passes through Bahanaga accident site at 30 kmph

Four days after the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express was involved in a triple train accident near Bahanagar Bazar station in Odisha's Balasore district, the down train from Chennai crossed the accident site at 30kmph on Tuesday. As the train passed through, a sizeable number of onlookers witnessed the locomotive chug through the distance. More than 70 trains including Vande Bharat Express have so far crossed through Bahanaga Bazar Station since both the up and down lines were restored on Sunday night. The three trains involved in the major accident which claimed 278 lives and injured 1200, were the Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Express and a stationary goods train. The CBI has on Tuesday taken over the Balasore GRP case No. 64 registered by Odisha Police. Khurda Road Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Rinkesh Ray said on Monday of the 278 bodies, 177 have been identified while the unclaimed bodies have been kept in six different hospitals. Roy said the Rail

Train accident: Migrant workers' body demands judicial probe, compensation

The West Bengal Migrant Workers Union on Tuesday has demanded a judicial probe on the derailment of the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel train near Bahanaga railway station in Odisha's Balasore district

Train crash: Man recovers his 'dead' son alive in Balasore makeshift morgue

Howrah resident Helaram Mallik travelled 235km to Balasore to recover his son alive from a makeshift morgue where he was kept with the bodies of those killed in the triple train accident. After pulling out his 24-year-old son Biswajit from the morgue at Bahanaga High School, Helaram rushed to Balasore Hospital before bringing him to Kolkata's SSKM Hospital. Biswajit, who suffered multiple bone injuries in his limbs, underwent two surgeries at the trauma care unit of SSKM Hospital here. "I saw the news on TV and then realised that I must call Biswajit to find out if he was okay. He did not initially pick up the calls and then when he did, I could hear a feeble voice on the other side," Helaram, who runs a kinara shop in Howrah, said. On the same night (June 2), he and his brother-in-law Dipak Das left for Balasore in an ambulance. "We could not find him as calls to his mobile went unanswered. We visited different hospitals but Biswajit was nowhere. We then went to a makeshift morgu

Odisha train tragedy: 31 from West Bengal are still missing, says Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said 31 passengers from her state, who were travelling in the express trains that met with an accident on June 2 evening in Odisha's Balasore, are missing