Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: Dilip Pattanayak shudders every time he has a flashback of the tragedy, his body shakes violently just as it did on the fateful evening of June 2 last year, when he was tossed around in a sleeper coach of the Coromandel Express. A year on, the 59-year-old and hundreds like him still struggle to come to terms with that tragedy, described as India’s worst railway disaster in three decades.
Pattanayak along with his three friends boarded the Chennai-bound train at Shalimar in West Bengal after attending a Satsang (sacred gathering) organised by a philanthropic organisation. He had just finished reciting the evening prayers, when the S5 coach he and his friends were travelling in shook violently, minutes after the train passed the Balasore railway station in Odisha. Pattanayak recalls clutching the synthetic-leather cover of the seat, closing his eyes as screams of passengers around him rented the air amid the sudden darkness.
“I just remember screams, blood and people falling over me,” the NGO worker from Bhubaneswar says, choking up while recalling the carnage on the railway tracks on June 2 evening.
A little before 7pm on June 2, 2023, the Coromandel Express collided with a stationary goods train laden with iron ore on the loop line at the Bahanaga Bazar railway station at 128 km per hour, with coaches cascading onto each other and some of its derailed coaches then crashing into the Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express, claiming 296 lives and leaving 1,100 injured.
An inquiry conducted by the Commissioner of Railway Safety found that the accident was caused by two botched repairs — including one an hour before the tragedy — that impaired the signalling system on the line sending the Coromandel Express on the loop line where a freight train was stationary.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the probe into the accident, arrested senior section engineer (signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, section engineer Mohammed Amir Khan, and technician Pappu Kumar. In its charge sheet filed in September last year, the federal agency charged them of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence under IPC. The three are currently on trial at a special CBI court in Bhubaneswar.
Soon after the tragedy, the Railways announced ₹10 lakh ex gratia for the kin of the deceased and ₹2 lakh for grievously injured passengers and ₹50,000 those suffering minor injuries while Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an additional ₹2 lakh for each deceased and ₹50,000 for the injured from the PM’s National Relief Fund. Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik also announced compensation of ₹5 lakh for the kin of the deceased from the state.
In October last year, the Odisha government had to cremate 28 unclaimed bodies as the DNA samples of claimants did not match due to delay in taking the sample. Of the over 150 DNA samples collected from the victims’ families, samples of 44 claimants did not match, depriving their kin of the ex-gratia and compensation announced by the authorities.
Pattanayak suffered lumber disc prolapse in the mishap which he did not realise immediately, but has led to lingering pain in his back and frequent numbness that still overpowers him. “I break into a cold sweat every time I think of the incident and wake up in the night with a shudder,” he says.
In Rachipur village of Jajpur district, Saraswati Sahoo is still grieving over losing her husband Siba Shankar Sahoo, a small-time businessman who used to buy wares from Kolkata and sell them in his village, in the tragedy. Her grief exacerbated with her in-laws accusing her of pocketing the ₹17-lakh compensation she received.
“My in-laws started torturing me for the money and spreading canards about my character. I felt so depressed that I thought of ending my life but stopped myself thinking about my son. I left my home and came to stay with my son in Bhubaneswar who is pursuing BTech,” the 40-year-old homemaker says.
She gets nightmares every time she remembers the lifeless face of her husband lying in a government school building.
“Though my husband usually travelled by Jan Shatabdi Express, on June 2 he took Coromandel Express to Jajpur Road. I did not pay any attention to the news of the rail tragedy till a neighbour told me that my husband was in that train and has been injured. The next morning, I was asked to reach Bahanaga with my Aadhaar card. There, I was shown a few bodies till I identified my husband. I passed out soon after,” she recalls.
A year has passed since the triple-train accident, however, the loco pilots of the Coromandel Express, which met with the tragedy, are yet to resume their duties. “They are not yet ready psychologically as well as physically,” a Bhubaneswar-based official said, adding that both loco pilots are able to walk with support and have assigned on ground duties.
Loco pilot Gunanidhi Mohanty suffered fractures in his ribs and injuries on his legs. “He was bedridden for three months and it is only sometime back that he has resumed office but not his work. Mohanty has been working at the station and has been handling rosters of loco- pilots at Bhubaneswar station. This is because he is not fit to fly yet, both mentally and physically,” the official said.
“The assistant loco-pilot Hajari Behera too had to undergo a major hip joint surgery,” an official from South Eastern Railways (SER) said. “Both the loco pilots are much better. They are able to report to work but they are yet to be psychologically ready to resume their true duties.”
A senior Indian Railways official, meanwhile, said the national carrier has taken various initiatives to ensure such accident is not repeated. “To increase the safety awareness after the accident, IR conducted safety drives and inspections and safety seminars were conducted. We also conducted intra railways safety audit and conducted joint mock exercises with NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) in all divisions of SER,” the official added.
At Bahanaga station, however, not much has changed as it still continued to operate from a ramshackle room. A small shower is enough to flood the waiting room due to lack of proper drainage system. Only six passenger trains halt at the station forcing thousands from the region to travel to Balasore, 20 km away, to board Express trains. A new station building which is under construction for over three years is yet to be completed.
In Bhubaneswar, Pattanayak is still unable to stand and sit for longer hours as the prolapse in the spine due to the mishap makes the pain unbearable. However, he would not let go of the blood-soaked shirt that he wore on the day of the accident despite prodding by his family. He says: “The shirt reminds me that I am lucky to be alive.”