Bhubaneswar: The final death toll in the Bahanaga Bazar Train tragedy in Balasore went up to 288 on Tuesday, Odisha Chief Secretary P K Jena said.
The Chief Secretary on Monday quoting Balasore the District Magistrate had confirmed 275 deaths after thorough verification and said the verification process is continuing. Jena told newspersons that the District Collector did a combing operation on both sides of the track up to 200 meters on Monday.
The district collector, he said, made a thorough check of all the records of bodies of injured persons recovered at the track level and then compared it with the information from district hospitals, the collection centre at Bahanaga, District Collection centre and temporary mortuaries .
After a thorough verification and reconciliation, the District Collector on Tuesday pegged the final death toll at 288.
The Chief Secretary said 94 bodies have been identified and handed over to their families at Balasore.
He said one injured who was admitted in the Bhadrak District headquarters hospital had died and the body was handed over to the next of kin of the deceased after following the due process of law.
Jena said 193 bodies were sent to mortuaries in Bhubaneswar out of which 110 bodies have so far been identified and handed over to the next of kin. He said out of 288 bodies 83 are yet to be identified.
The Chief Secretary said DNA sampling is being conducted on the bodies not identified and later these bodies will be handed over to their relatives after the matching of the DNA test
UNI
