PM Modi reaches Odhisa Train accident site and hospital where injured admitted over 300 dead
PM Modi reaches Odhisa Train accident site and hospital where injured admitted over 300 dead
The Balasore Odhisa terrible train accident has not only rocked but has given a jolt to the Nation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi has left for the accident site as toll nears 300
In the triple train accident over 300 people have perished. Its the worst ever train accident to happen.
Reportedly, PM Modi apart visiting the accident site will also visit the hospital in Cuttack where some of the injured have been admitted.
Before leaving for Oshisa the prime minister convened a meeting to review the situation in relation to the Odisha train accident.
The railways today said the rescue operations at the accident site were over.
The train crash, the fourth deadliest in India according to available records, happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 pm on Friday, prompting the Railway Ministry to order a probe.
The inquiry into the train accident will be led by AM Chowdhary, Commissioner Railway Safety, South East Circle, the Indian Railways said in a statement. The Commissioner Railway Safety comes under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Several coaches of the 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, on the way to Howrah, derailed and fell on adjacent tracks, an official said.
A goods train was also involved in the accident as some of the coaches of the Coromandel Express, which was heading to Chennai, hit its wagons after getting derailed.
Gas cutters were used to extricate the bodies from under the derailed coaches. Disaster management personnel and firemen were also drawn in to extricate bodies.
Railway tracks were almost destroyed at the spot as mangled coaches lay strewn all over, with some having mounted on another, while a few coaches turned turtle due to the impact.
Railway Min Ashwini Vaishnaw visits Odisha train accident spot, says ‘rescue ops top priority, no time for politics’
Pijush Poddar, a resident of Berhampore in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, was travelling to Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Express to join work there when the accident happened.
Those who escaped revealed that it jolted as the train bogie turned to one side. Many of them were thrown out of the compartment by the momentum of the derailment. When they managed to crawl out, they found bodies lying all around.
According to Locals they heard consecutive loud sounds, following which they rushed to the spot and found the derailed coaches, which were nothing but “a mangled heap of steel”.
“The local people really went out on a limb to help us… They not only helped in pulling out people but retrieved our luggage and got us water, ” Rupam Banerjee, one of the passengers, told reporters.
One of the coaches “was pushed into the ground ” as another from a neighbouring train collapsed on top of it, passengers said.
Balasore district hospital looked like a war zone with the injured lying on stretchers in the corridor and rooms bursting at its seams with extra beds propped up.
News input KV Raman
