'Most of 700 AP passengers in Odisha train tragedy unhurt' 'Most of 700 AP passengers in Odisha train tragedy unhurt'

Press Trust of India

Visakhapatnam: Except one death and 22 people with minor injuries, nearly 700 passengers identified thus far from Andhra Pradesh have managed to escape the horrific crash involving three trains in Odisha unscathed, a minister said on Sunday. The Andhra Pradesh government has identified that 695 passengers from the state were on the two trains, Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express and the SMVT Bengaluru Howrah Superfast Express, Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana said.

The minister identified the lone deceased person as Gurumurthy, hailing from Sonthabommali village in Srikakulam district. "He (Gur umur thy) worked in Odisha and went there to take his pension after superannuating when this accident occurred. His family members were there and cremation was done yesterday (Saturday)," Satyanarayana said in a video link released by the state government.

According to the minister, 480 persons from the state were travelling on Coromandel Express and 211 were on the other train, with 107 of them embarking at Tirupati. Upon enquiring, Satyanarayana noted that 553 of the survivors are confirmed to be safe without any injuries and have returned to their homes. However, 22 survivors suffered minor injuries, one of them with a severe head injury while efforts are on to trace 28 passengers who could not be contacted.

He said the government has directed officials from the disaster management and police departments to identify these 28, including trying to locate their phones and visiting their homes. Out of the injured survivors, Satyanarayana said five are undergoing inpatient treatment at hospitals in Visakhapatnam, four are arriving while 11 got themselves checked and returned home.

Meanwhile, the helplines set up by the various departments did not receive any distress calls, prompting the minister to issue an appeal to the public to reach out in case they know of someone stuck in the accident. Moreover, he said that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed officials to disburse an emergency ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh for deceased persons, Rs 2 lakh for severely injured and Rs 1 lakh for survivors who suffered some wounds.

Despite such a massive accident, Satyanarayana said not many persons from the state died in the accident and thanked God for this development. Terming this as a big fortune, he observed that out of 1,000 injured people, only around 20 from the state were injured of which most of them were without any life threatening ones.

However, he highlighted that the government does not have information on people from the state who travelled in unreserved general coaches, underlining that all the data he shared was with respect to reserved coaches. He said the team headed by Industries Minister Gudivada Amarnath is visiting all the hospitals in Balasore and Bhubaneswar, which could throw up some light on the whereabouts of general category passengers. As 48 hours have lapsed since the accident, the minister is hoping that some worried families may reach out in search of their missed ones.

TTD chairman Y V Subba Reddy pointed out that 180 bodies are yet to be identified from the accident, even as images of deceased persons are being circulated in the control room and through WhatsApp for identification. Further, seven more passengers who survived the accident returned to the state in a private vehicle and the government is reimbursing their travel expenses giving cheques up to Rs 30,000.

The crash involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, which were carrying around 2,500 passengers, and a goods train occurred around 7 pm on Friday near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district of Odisha. At least 288 people were dead and over 1,100 injured in the accident, the worst rail accident in India in nearly three decades.