Odisha train tragedy: Both Up, Down lines at crash site repaired

The government on Sunday said both the Up and Down railway tracks at the Balasore accident site have been repaired. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that track linking Up-line has been restored and overhead electrification work has also started.

Balasore (Odisha):Two days after one of India's worst train accidents at Bahanaga Bazar in Odisha's Balasore district, two railway tracks have been made fit to carry trains after bulldozers and cranes removed capsized coaches on the main trunk line connecting eastern and southern India.

The government on Sunday said both the Up and Down railway tracks at the Balasore accident site have been repaired. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that track linking Up-line has been restored and overhead electrification work has also started. "Two railway tracks have been repaired. We are now working on restoring the overhead electric cables," Vaishnaw said on Sunday evening.

He also said that the Railway Board has recommended a CBI probe into the triple train accident. Officials said the track restoration implies that at least one set of railway tracks was now fit for trains, but more time will be required to fix all tracks, which include loop lines, at the Balasore accident site. However, till the overhead electric cable are repaired, only diesel locomotives can be run on the two lines which have been repaired.

Once the overhead electric lines are repaired, electric trains can start plying. They indicated that this would take another three days. Earlier, on Saturday, Prime Minister had spoken of stringent action against any found guilty for the Balasore train tragedy.

The Odisha government on Sunday also revised the triple train accident's death toll to 275 from 288, and put the number of injuries at 1,175. Chief Secretary P K Jena told newspersons some bodies were counted twice. "After detailed verification and a report by Balasore District Collector, the final toll has been fixed at 275," he said.

Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Dharmendra Pradhan who have camped here visited the railway accident site Sunday. Pradhan added that "rescue work is over we are working with the local administration to send people affected back home." "By Tuesday we should be able to do it," Pradhan said.

Senior railway officials said, "We have teams working round the clock". "Restoration work on tracks is on. We are also working on overhead cables and masts which were uprooted, the official said. A thorough search is also being conducted in the passenger coaches which have been removed to check for bodies which may still be in them trapped in crumbled steel parts of the coach.

Odisha Chief Secretary PK Jena told newspersons at Bhubaneswar Sunday that 88 bodies have been identified so far and 78 handed over to their families while 187 were yet to be identified. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee however lashed out at the death toll figures, stating that from her state alone, 61 people were dead and 182 missing.

"If 182 are missing and 61 confirmed dead from one state, then where would the figures (death toll) stand?" she told reporters in Kolkata. A large number of unidentified dead bodies have been kept in morgue which account for the missing people on the train, according to railway officials.

The Odisha chief secretary said proper identification of the bodies was the biggest challenge. "DNA sampling will be done and photographs of the deceased will be uploaded on government websites," he said. Jena said 9 teams of NDRF, 5 ODRAF units and 24 fire services teams were engaged in the rescue operations, which are now complete.