Kolkata: West Bengal government has opened control rooms and sent team to the accident spot following the deadly train accident (Shalimar- Coromandel Express) that took place near Balasore in Odisha on Friday evening.
Addressing the media, Chief Secretary Hari Krishna Diwedi said after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alerted him, he had immediately contacted the railway authorities GM South Eastern railways and alerted them about Bengal control rooms.
“We also contacted our counterparts in the Odisha government, the district magistrate of Balasore and we activated our control room, the numbers are 033 22143526, 033 2253 5185. TMC leader Manas Bhunia, MP Dola Sen and one of our additional district magistrate who hails from Odisha went to Balasore,” said Diwedi.
Though the West Bengal Chief Secretary didn’t mention any number of casualties but mentioned the state government’s hospitals are kept on alert in keeping to severeness of the accident.
“We have sent several ambulances and have alerted superspeciality and state government hospitals. I have learned from our Chief Minister that several passengers from West Bengal were also travelling in the train,” further added the Chief Secretary.
Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena said that at least 60 ambulances were rushed to the spot and hospitals in Balasore, Cuttack, Bhadrak and Jajpur had been alerted.
Meanwhile, several long distance trains like Howrah-Puri, Howrah- Chennai and UP Howrah-Yesvantpur trains were cancelled.
According to an eyewitness Jaydeep Ghosh there are several casualties as till the time of reporting many passengers are still caught inside the train compartment.
“Mostly the general compartments near the engine are affected. I have never seen so many bodies and pools of blood before in life. The casualties will be more than 200. Extra lights are being set up so that the process of evacuation can become easy. Several local people came for help. Some passengers flew out of the train and landed in a nearby canal,” claimed Ghosh.
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