Odisha train accident: Teams working round the clock to restore tracks

Balasore: Two days after one of India's worst train accidents at Bahanga Bazar in Odisha's Balasore district, most railway tracks have been cleared of wrecked railway coaches overnight by a team of bulldozers and cranes so that railway services on the main trunk line connecting eastern and southern India can be restored, railway officials said on Sunday.

Work on repairing tracks and overhead electric lines which had snapped is also going on, said officials.

"We have teams working round the clock. Restoring at least two lines -up and down - is absolutely essential as quickly as possible," a senior railway official at the site said.

A thorough search is being conducted in the passenger coaches which have been removed to check for bodies which may still be in them trapped in crumbled steel parts of the coach.

Sources said that the number of deaths in the triple train crash on Friday has also increased from 288 to 295 but this could not be confirmed as yet.

The triple train pile-up near Balasore on Friday disrupted passenger and goods traffic between important industrial centres.

Three trains— Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah super fast and a goods train — were involved in the pile-up, now being described as one of India’s worst train accidents.