Signal failure caused India’s deadliest railway catastrophe in almost two decades, killing at least 275 people. On Sunday, rescue personnel concluded their efforts.
According to the chief secretary of the eastern state of Odisha, Pradeep Jena, the death toll from Friday’s accident was revised down from 288 after it was determined that some bodies were counted twice.
He told reporters it was unlikely that the number would rise. “Now the rescue operation is complete.”
Nearly 1,200 people were injured near the Balasore district when a passenger train collided with a stationary goods train, leaped the tracks, and collided with another passenger train traveling in the opposite direction.
The Odisha state government reported that more than 900 patients had been evacuated from the hospital. While 260 were still being treated, with one patient in critical condition.
The state-owned Indian Railways, which claims to transport more than 13 million passengers per day, has been working to improve its safety record, which has been attributed to its antiquated infrastructure, and is conducting an initial investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
The Railway Board, India’s highest executive authority, sent the subject to the CBI, according to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is up for re-election next year, visited the scene on Saturday to speak with rescue personnel, examine the wreckage, and meet some of the injured.
Modi stated, “Those found guilty will be punished severely.”
Preliminary examinations
The Coromandel Express, traveling from Kolkata to Chennai, left the main track and entered a loop track, a side track used to park trains, at 128 kilometers per hour, colliding with a goods train parked on the loop track, according to Jaya Varma Sinha, a member of the Railway Board.
She told reporters that the locomotive and the first four or five coaches of the Coromandel Express jumped the tracks, tipped over, and collided with the last two coaches of the Yeshwantpur-Howrah train traveling in the opposite direction at 126 kilometers per hour on the second main track.
Sinha explained that this caused the two coaches to leave the tracks, resulting in an enormous pileup.
She reported that the conductors of both passenger trains were injured but survived.
The investigation is now centered on the computer-controlled track management system, also known as the “interlocking system,” which directs a train to an unoccupied track at the intersection of two tracks.
Sinha stated that the machine malfunctioned and should not have permitted the Coromandel Express to use the loop track.
Restoration
As relatives wept, workers with heavy machinery were clearing the damaged track, derailed trains, and electric cables.
More than one thousand individuals were involved in the rescue, according to a tweet from the Railway Ministry.
“By Wednesday morning, all restoration work should be finished and the tracks should be operational,” Vaishnaw said.
Dozens of relatives waited in a business center where corpses were being taken for identification. Many weeping and clutching identification cards and photographs of missing loved ones.
49-year-old Kanchan Choudhury was looking for her spouse. On the train were five individuals from her village, four of whom were being treated for injuries. Her spouse was discovered dead, she sobbed as she waited to claim compensation while carrying both of their identification cards.
Saturday, Vaishnaw announced that the families of the deceased will receive 1 rupee in compensation. While the severely injured will receive 200,000 rupees and minor injuries will receive 50,000 rupees.
