A four-member Andhra Pradesh team, which arrived in Balasore, is collecting details about the passengers from the state, who were travelling in Coromandel Express, the ill-fated train that was involved in a three-way crash along with Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a good train.
The team comprising three IAS officers headed by state Industry Minister G Amarnath was sent to Balasore, the place where the horrific train accident took place, by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy after taking stock of the tragedy that killed 178 passengers while injuring 900 others at a high-level meeting.
“There were 178 passengers from Andhra Pradesh travelling in these trains. However, the number of casualties or injured is yet to be known,” said Anup Satpathy, DRM Waltair of East Coast Railway.
Among the passengers from Andhra Pradesh 110 were to disembark at Visakhapatnam, 26 at Rajamahendravaram, one at Tadepalligudem, two at Eluru and 39 at Vijayawada. However, the number of those coming to Andhra Pradesh would be higher than the official record since a large number of migrants board the general category coach often without buying tickets.
Since the number of injured is high, the chief minister directed the officials to put the hospitals at the Odisha border on alert and keep ambulances standby.
The IAS officers who are part of the team are Commissioner, Civil Supplies, H Arun Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Commercial Tax Anand and Joint Collector of the Srikakulam district Naveen. The the three officers accompanied Industry Minister G Amarnath to the accident site. The help desks at the Collectorates were to pass on any information received from railway authorities and to respond immediately if any information was received from the relatives of the passengers.
Besides the help desk, the chief minister decided to open enquiry cells at all district collectorates.