Date:31/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/31/stories/2005103105540600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Train accident toll 111, relief work in full swing

Special Correspondent

Railways confident of restoring track in 10 days

HYDERABAD: Relief and restoration works in the aftermath of ghastly accident involving the Delta Fast Passenger were taken up on a war-footing on Sunday, even as the toll mounted to 111 with the recovery of eight bodies a few hundred metres away from the site, near Nagaram village.

The bodies were recovered by the Greyhounds and Rapid Action Force personnel this morning. "All eight bodies were found downstream in bushes," Guntur Divisional Railway Manager C.S. Chauhan told The Hindu . They were brought to the State capital and kept in the mortuary of Osmania Hospital. Of the 111 bodies, 69 were handed over to relatives at Secunderabad, Guntur and Nalgonda.

Some 200 army personnel from the Bison Regiment, Secunderabad, and a 15-member crack team of naval divers from Visakhapatnam continued the search for bodies but could not locate any. The divers searched the muddy waters of Thummalacheruvu tank, 2 km downstream of the scene of accident.

Nalgonda Collector K. Vijayanand said army and naval personnel had confirmed that all bodies were extricated from coaches.

Meanwhile, Southern Railway General Manager Thomas Varghese told reporters at the site that the emphasis now was on relief work to clear the bodies and remove the wreckage. A 140-tonne crane was pressed into service to lift the precariously perched coaches. Excavators and bulldozers were deployed as also gas cutters to cut the coaches. To make the task easy, officials also made lighting arrangements and diverted the flow of water from the Ramasamudram tank. He said the track would be restored in 10 days.

VIPs visit site

VIPs continued to make a beeline for the spot affecting relief work. TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, Union Minister A. Narendra and Congress MP V. Hanumantha Rao were among the visitors. Curious villagers continued to throng the site, forcing the police to keep them at bay.

A railway spokesman said 24 of the 34 injured passengers admitted to the Railway Hospital, Lalaguda, were discharged and one was shifted to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences.