Odisha Train Accident: BMC Readies 4 Places For Mass Cremation As Relatives Await DNA Test Report

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has identified four possible sites in the city for the final rites of the unclaimed bodies of the Odisha train accident victims, reports said on Tuesday.

Besides Satyanagar electric crematorium, a place at Aiginia, another close to AIIMS, Kapilprasad and the fourth at Bharatpur have been identified for mass disposal of bodies at short notice. The civic body officials have conveyed to the state government that any date after June 15, when the 3-day Raja festivities end, would be convenient for mass cremation if the need arises, the TOI reported.

Of the 288 deaths, a maximum of 102 passengers from West Bengal were killed in the crash, followed by 55 from Bihar, 39 from Odisha, nine from Jharkhand and one each from Andhra Pradesh and Nepal. The rest 81 bodies are unidentified and kept in four specially requisitioned containers at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar. To ascertain the claims of relatives, struggling to identify their kin, 75 DNA samples have been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Delhi.

Medical superintendent Dillip Kumar Parida told the national daily that the bodies haven’t shown signs of further decomposition, but indications are that a call would need to be taken instantly after the results of the DNA tests arrive.

Altogether 2,296 passengers were travelling in Howrah Superfast Express and Coromandel Express, which collided following the derailment of the latter after ramming a stationary goods train on the fateful evening. While 211 passengers were declared dead at the spot by doctors mobilised from Bhadrak and Balasore, the rest were either received dead at different hospitals or succumbed while undergoing treatment.

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