Even as passenger trains started passing through the site of Friday’s rail accident in Odisha’s Balasore district, bringing a modicum of normalcy to Bahanaga village on Monday, chaotic scenes of frantic relatives looking for their loved ones played out 40 kilometres away at the Balasore medical college hospital. Following a massive restoration effort at the accident site in Bahanaga, train services through the area resumed on Sunday night with a number of goods and passenger trains passing through since then. But signs of the tragedy, in which 275 people died and many others got injured, were still visible. Damaged bogies of the trains involved in the accident could be seen in ditches on one side of the tracks. Some of the machinery used in the restoration work were also still there, as were small groups of workers clearing and cleaning the area. The atmosphere at the Fakir Mohan Medical College and Hospital, however, remained frantic on Monday. Hospital authorities have set up help desks, and photos of the dead have been put up to help relatives identify their loved ones. Muhammed Sarfaraz Ahmed from Hyderabad ran from one counter to another in search of his seven-year-old daughter. “I found my wife’s body in Bhubaneswar, but could not find my daughter. I checked the photos displayed here, and she is not among those,” said Ahmed, breaking down. “I buried my wife in Bhubaneswar before rushing here to the Balasore hospital,” he added. Ahmed’s wife Shabana and daughter Zahida were travelling on the Coromandel Express from Kolkata to Chennai. On Friday, at around 7 pm at Bahanaga in Balasore district, the train rammed into a stationary goods train. Many of its bogies derailed and were scattered in the area, including on adjacent tracks. Then, another train, the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express hit the Coromandel’s bogies, leading to bogies of this train also derailing. It was India’s deadliest train accident in over two decades. “I last spoke with my wife and daughter at 5.30 pm on June 2 (the day of the tragedy),” Ahmed said. Having not found his daughter at the Balasore hospital, he said he would rush back to Bhubaneswar to look for her there again. “Now, someone told me that my daughter may be admitted in a hospital in Bhubaneswar,” he said as he prepared to leave. Among the crowd gathered to look for their loved ones was a group of people from Matkara village in Jharkhand’s Dumka district. Five of their friends and relatives have been missing since the accident. The five were on their way to Chennai, where they worked as daily-wage labourers, said a member of the group, Betka Marandi, whose son, Suklal was among those missing. Sukhlal Kisku, who was also part of the group, said his relative Munshi could also not be found and that the photos of none of the five missing youths from his village were at the hospital. Also looking for a relative among the photos was Md Nizamuddin from Purnia in Bihar. Expressing his sense of helplessness, he said, “My relative Bhikhari Sheikh was travelling with his two sons, Tafsir and Tausif. We found the two bodies of the sons, but Bhikhari is missing. I do not know what to do.” According to authorities, 22 passengers have died at the Balasore medical college hospital since the train accident. As many as 451 were brought in injured, many of whom left after receiving primary care. The number of passengers admitted to the hospital was 294, of which 27 still remained at the hospital while most others had been discharged. In a special initiative announced on Monday aimed at helping those looking for their loved ones, the Railways along with the Odisha government circulated online links through which a list of passengers admitted at various hospitals and photos of deceased passengers could be accessed. Toll free helpline numbers had already been set up by the Railways. There is also a helpline to reach the Municipal Commissioner’s Office in Bhubaneswar, which also provides provisions for vehicles to take relatives of the train crash victims to hospitals or morgues.
