Balasore (Odisha): The death toll in Friday's triple train accident at Bahanaga Bazar in Odisha's Balasore rose to 288 even as work to remove mangled coaches and repair tracks at the site started in full swing, a railway official said.
Three trains -- 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train -- were involved in the accident, one of the worst railway tragedies in the country. Citing reports available till late afternoon Saturday, the official said 288 people were killed in the accident.
"A total of 1,175 people were admitted to hospitals, including private establishments, and of them, 793 were discharged while 382 are undergoing treatment and barring two who are critical, the condition of the remaining is stated to be stable," he said. The two express trains were carrying more than 2,200 passengers with reserved tickets, he added.
The railways said that the 12841 Coromandel Express while passing through the Up main line met with an accident and dashed with a stationary goods train in a loop line at Bahanaga Bazar station, situated about 280 km from Howrah and 171 km from Bhubaneswar. A loop line is a railway track connected at either end to a main line, to which trains can be diverted to allow others to pass.
The impact was such that 21 coaches of the train, which was travelling at full speed since it was not supposed to stop at the station, were derailed, with three coaches falling on a neighbouring track, through which the 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah express was simultaneously passing in the opposite direction, the railways said.
The Bengaluru-Howrah train collided with the fallen coaches of Coromandel Express on the down track and its rearmost two coaches derailed, the railways said. "There were around 1,257 passengers with reserved tickets onboard Coromandel Express, while 1,039 people with reservation were travelling in the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express," officials said.
There were many others who were travelling in unreserved coaches of the two trains. The railways announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of those who died, Rs 2 lakh to the grievously injured and Rs 50,000 for passengers with simple injury.
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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the accident spot in Odisha on Saturday and then also met the survivors at Balasore hospital. Earlier, the PM held a high-level meeting in the national capital to take stock of the situation. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared one-day state mourning on Saturday after the horrific tragedy.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who visited the accident spot, has announced that a detailed inquiry will be conducted into the mishap. He also said that an independent inquiry will be conducted by the rail safety commissioner.
