Bhubaneswar, June 5 (UNI) Around 170 bodies of Friday’s train disaster victims in Bahanaga railway station have been identified so far, Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said on Monday.
Talking to newspersons here, Jena said efforts are on by the state government to ensure that the rest of the bodies are identified by their near and dear ones.
The death count in the tragedy stands at 275, while over 1000 are said to have been injured.
The top bureaucrat said after the identification process the handing over of the bodies to their relatives is going on and as per the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik all support will be given by the state government to send the corpses free of cost to their respective destinations.
He requested the people across the country whose relatives had travelled in the ill-fated trains which met with the accident on Friday to contact the two toll free numbers - 1800-3450061/ 18003451929 to get necessary information about the deceased and also about the injured persons admitted at various hospitals in the state.
He said through these two toll free numbers, the administration would guide the people to where the bodies were kept and where the injured patients were undergoing treatment.
The Chief Secretary said once the person landed in Bhubaneswar, the state government will provide all logistic support including their stay and free transportation to the hospital to identify the bodies and see the injured patients in the hospital.
He said in case after substantial efforts some bodies could not be identified, the government will cremate them after conducting the DNA test as the mutilated bodies could not be kept for a longer time.
The Chief Secretary said special bus services are being arranged from the railway stations at Puri, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to send the stranded passengers to Kolkata free of cost which will continue till train movement normalises.
Jena hoped that by Tuesday train services will be normal.
Official sources said currently only 198 of the total 1009 injured passengers are undergoing treatment at various hospitals and barring one the condition of other passengers is stable.
Odisha Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Satyabrata Sahu said due to the efforts of rescue team officials and local people and also the timely treatment "we could save the lives of nearly 1200 people".
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