The Odisha government is handing over the identified bodies to their relatives or they are being transported to their respective destinations after autopsy. A statutory procedure will be followed for the unidentified ones, state Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena informed on Saturday morning while providing the latest updates on horrific Balasore train accident, as quoted by news agency ANI.
7 NDRF, 5 ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force) & 24 Fire Service Units, local police, and volunteers are working tirelessly in search and rescue, Jena further added.
Earlier in the day, Jena informeed that the death toll in the train accident in Balasore has sharply risen to 233, with the number of injured passengers reaching 900.
In response to the tragedy, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has instructed that all injured victims receive free medical treatment at BSKY (Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana) facility hospitals and other private hospitals. The state will bear the cost of medical expenses. Patnaik personally assessed the situation and reviewed the ongoing rescue operations from the Control Room at the Speculation Relief Commissioner's office in Bhubaneswar.
Several coaches of the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed near Bahanaga station in Odisha's Balasore after hitting a goods train.
According to Railway Spokesperson Amitabh Sharma, the accident took place at around 7 pm on Friday." Around 7 pm, 10-12 coaches of the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed near Baleswar and fell on the opposite track. After some time, another train from Yeswanthpur to Howrah dashed into those derailed coaches resulting in the derailment of its 3-4 coaches," Sharma told
Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena, Development Commissioner-cum-ACS- Anu Garg, Principal Secretary, I&PR Department Sanjay Kumar Singh, MD, OSDMA Gyan Das are present in the Control room of SRC to monitor the rescue operation.
(With agency inputs)
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