Rail Mishap: 28 passengers from AP yet to be traced, says Botsa

VISHAKHAPATNAM:

Education minister Botsa Satyanarayana said that except for one person, all passengers of accident-hit Coromandel express and Yeswanthpur express trains were traced. No more deaths have been reported, the minister told reporters in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

 

Addressing a press conference in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, Satyanarayana said relief measures were in full swing. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also held a review meeting with senior officials on the ground situation at the accident and the aid being rendered to the injured victims and their families.

“A team of senior officials headed by a minister were at the accident site to supervise relief operations,” he said.

The minister said the state government has announced an ex gratia of '10 lakh  in case of death, '2 lakh to those with serious injuries and '1 lakh for people with minor injuries.

He said 484 individuals from AP were on board the Coromandel Express going towards Chennai from Shalimar and 211 passengers on Bengaluru-Howrah Super Fast Express. In all 695 passengers from AP were travelling on both the trains and of them 553 passengers were safe. He said 21 suffered injuries and the condition of one passenger was said to be critical.

Similarly, 92 passengers said they had cancelled their journey while 28 passengers are yet to be traced, the minister said. He said 50 ambulances have been dispatched to Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to bring back injured persons. The Vizag Control Room is yet to receive any call, he added.

The Coromandel Express carried 484 passengers of them 309 booked their tickets to Visakhapatnam, 31 Rajahmundry, 9 Eluru and 135 in Vijayawada. Similarly, 211 boarded the Yeshwantpur superfast express and of the 33 boarded from Visakhapatnam, 3 from Rajahmundry, one from Eluru, 41 Vijayawada, 8 each from Bapatla and Tenali, 2 from Guntur, 11from Ongole, three from Nellore and 107 from Tirupati. Of the passengers, one person Gurumurthy was travelling on Yeshwantpur Express died in the accident. Of the 20 injured persons, two were undergoing treatment at King George Hospital, two in a corporate hospital and one in INS Kalyani, the naval hospital. Four were coming from Odisha for treatment and 11 were discharged from the hospitals.