It is a great irony for Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw that the fourth deadliest train crash of India has occurred in Bahanaga of Odisha's Balasore district where he was the collector in his IAS tenure and he is now a member of Rajya Sabha from the state.
Vaishnav had earned respect while working as the collector of two important districts of Cuttack and Balasore in coastal Odisha. After leaving government service, he had a brief association with private sector before being elected to Rajya Sabha from Odisha as a BJP nominee. His victory had been possible due to BJD's support, considered something unprecedented. Later he went on to become the first Union minister for railways from Odisha.
Of course, Vaishnav has paid back to the state as well as the ruling BJD indirectly with generous provision to state for rail infrastructure improvement. However, the horrific accident on June 2, involving three trains—two passenger trains and a goods train—has led to the demand for his resignation by opposition parties at the national level.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site on Saturday afternoon. He spent around 20 minutes at the site and later met the injured at a Balasore hospital. Modi told the media that the incident will be probed from every angle and those found guilty will be punished stringently.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of neighbouring West Bengal, flew to the accident site and announced financial aid to the victims belonging to her state, while both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka chief ministers rushed their high-level delegation to Odisha, highlighting the enormity of the incident. The chief ministers of both Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh spoke to their Odisha counterpart over phone.
Odisha's BJD government led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has treated the mishap almost like a natural calamity which this coastal state is known for. The chief minister not only monitored the development in control room from Friday evening after the accident, but also visited the accident site and met the injured in district hospital.
For people of Balasore, this is the second big mishap after Baudpur rail accident of 1964. Baudpur was part of undivided Balasore district at that time. But for Niranjan Sarangi and Bhagabat Prasad Rath, both in their eighties, Friday evening's crash at Bahanga has turned as the biggest shock of their lives. The two retired persons were enjoying their routine evening breeze, sitting at their designated place at a distance of ten feet from the train line. While they were planning to return, they saw one goods train being allowed into number one platform and the train halted there. Then two express trains—Coromandel Express and Bengaluru-Howrah Express—came from different different directions with much speed. The Coromandel Express moved to number one track instead of two.
What they saw after that was one train crashing into another with a big sound. Rath, who had retired as a Tahsil clerk, was hit with a stone on his back. He later narrated the ordeal on how they had to walk back home after seeing bodies of several people lying in the area. The senior officer met someone lying near his garden and thought him to be dead. But he was alive and soon shifted to hospital.
Some of the survivers camped at Rath's house on Friday night. Shubhransu Behera of Basta, the only son of his parents, was travelling in Coromandel Express's general compartment when he felt like the train hitting on something. His bogey tilted to one side and some people dragged him out. After coming out, he saw several persons lying dead, Shubhrasu said. Somehow he informed his family that he was safe, though his uncle was missing. “Within 10-11 minutes, everything became topsy-turvy,” he said.
Bidhanchandra Jena, a social worker of Balasore, was coming to his hometown on the Bengaluru-Howrah express. He was in an AC compartment. When his train was going to hit the Coromandel Express coming from opposite side, the loco pilot tried on apply brakes thrice. But after the crash one compartment derailed and another was damaged because of crash. All the passengers were crying and shouting, said Jena, a fortunate surviver.
Sisir Roy, a media reporter, said he was at Bahanga market when the incident happened. It was a walking distance of 20 minutes from crash site and they rushed to the spot. He questions how the Coromandel Express could be allowed on the track where a goods train was parked. It must have been mismanagement of signal system, he says. Of course, the opposition parties have raised doubt on signalling defects.
Ranjan Kumar Rout, a local social worker, said he was near the Bahanaga station when accident took place. Rout called all known social workers from nearby place, who helped in rescue work. Local people and citizens from Balasore town also came in large numbers to help the affected people and many of them even donated blood to the injured.
There were 2,000 people in Balasore medical college hospital on Friday night offering services. Even policemen gave blood, according to officials. Survivers like Rupam Banerjee said local people at Bahanaga rushed to the site after the accident and extended help to train passengers. Many of the deceased are labourers who were going to Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Some labourers, who were returning from the South, have also been hit by the accident. The toll is 288 and likely to increase.
