Minister for Industries and Commerce Gudivada Amarnath has said 482 passengers bound for various stations in Andhra Pradesh were travelling to Visakhapatnam (309), Rajahmundry (31), Eluru (5) and Vijayawada (137) stations on the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel and SMVT Bengaluru-Howrah superfast express trains. Of them, 267 were safe and 20 were injured. Another 113 passengers were either not answering phone calls or their devices were switched off.
The Andhra Pradesh officials were focussing on finding their whereabouts, while 82 passengers are learnt to have cancelled their journey.
Officials of the revenue and other departments were despatched to Balasore, Gopalpur and Soro railway stations and various hospitals there to trace the passengers from the State.
In a video message from Bhubaneswar en route to the accident spot, Mr. Amarnath said the government was prepared to operate even air ambulances if the situation required as per the instructions of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who did not want any effort to be spared in bringing the passengers back safely.
The 482 passengers were to deboard the trains at the above stations in Andhra Pradesh, and the immediate focus was on the fate of 113 passengers who were not reachable. Thirty-nine passengers who were destined to arrive in Vijayawada could be spoken to. Medical teams were sent to the accident spot to attend to the injured and all possible assistance was being rendered, he said.
