Odisha Train Accident: Train Services Resume On Accident-Affected Balasore

Indian Railways on Monday has started running passenger trains on the tracks in Bahanaga village in Odisha's Balasore, more than 51 hours after the triple train collision.

The service resumed on the repaired tracks after Indian Railways took restoration works on a war footing. On Sunday at 10.40 pm, the first train on the section started its journey, officials said. The goods train was seen off by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as railway officials looked on.

In the visuals shared by ANI, Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express is seen crossing from Odisha's Balasore accident that took place on June 2.

"PM Modi gave his advice and instructions on the restoration of the railway tracks. The whole team (involved in the restoration work) laboured diligently and systematically to fix the damaged rails for the resumption of services," Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told ANI while talking about the restoration works on Sunday.

However, he also stated that their responsibility is not over yet. "Our goal is to make sure missing persons' family members can find them as soon as possible...our responsibility is not over yet,"

As per the revised death toll, 275 people have lost their lives in the incident while over 1,000 people have been injured.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the "root cause" of the accident and the "criminals" responsible for it have been identified.

"It happened due to a change made in the electronic interlocking and point machine," he told reporters at the site of the accident in Balasore district.

At around 7 pm on Friday, the crash involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train occurred near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar. As many as 17 coaches of these two passenger trains were derailed and severely damaged in the deadly accident.