51 Hours Later, First Train Moved On Balasore Section Where 275 Died In Crash

A train departed from Balasore at 10.40pm on Sunday (4 June), the first one to do so, 51 hours after the devastating accident that took the lives of 275 people.

Media and railway officials watched as Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw saw off the goods train.

The coal-carrying train was going from Vizag port to the Rourkela steel plant on the same track where the Bengaluru-Howrah train had an accident last Friday (2 June).

The Howrah-bound train had collided with the capsized bogies of the Coromandel Express, which had hit a stationary freight train seconds before.

Downline restoration was accomplished first, with the upline restored within two hours.

An empty goods train ran on the upline of the accident-affected section, the same track where the Coromandel Express collided with a stationary goods train after moving on to the loop line.

"We have to take this entire section towards normalisation," Vaishnaw said.

"Our objective is to ensure that all the missing persons’ family members find them as soon as possible. Our responsibility is not over yet,” he said, visibly emotional, as he announced the restoration of the accident-affected section.

Around 200 bodies remain unidentified so far.