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KONTAN.CO.ID – BAHASA, India. Indian authorities said they had completed rescue operations from the country’s deadliest train crash in more than two decades on Sunday. Signal failure emerged as a possible cause of death for at least 275 people.

The death toll in Friday night’s crash was reduced from 288 after it was discovered that some of the bodies had been counted twice, said Pradeep Jena, chief secretary of eastern Odisha state.

The tally is unlikely to increase, he told reporters. “Now the rescue operation is over.”

But nearly 1,200 people were injured when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, derailed and hit another passenger train traveling in the opposite direction near Balasore district.

India’s state-run railways carry more than 13 million people a day, with aging infrastructure being one of the problems.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who faces a general election next year, visited the scene on Saturday to talk to rescue workers, inspect the wreckage and meet some of the injured. “Those found guilty will be severely punished,” Modi said.

Read also : Series of deadliest rail accidents in India

Preliminary examination

Preliminary investigations show that the Coromandel Express, bound for Chennai from Kolkata, derailed from the main line and entered the ring track – the side track used to park trains – traveling at 128 km/h (80 mph), hitting a freight train parked on the circular track, members of the Railroad Board told Api Jaya Varma Sinha.

The collision caused the engine and the first four or five carriages of the Coromandel Express to jump over the tracks, overturn and crash into the last two carriages of the Yeshwantpur-Howrah train traveling in the opposite direction at 126 km/h on the second main line .

“It knocked both cars over the rails, causing huge debris,” Sinha said.

The drivers of the two passenger trains were injured but survived, he said.

Read also : Rail accident in India, 207 dead, 900 injured

Restoration

Meanwhile, workers with heavy equipment clear damaged tracks, damaged trains and power lines. On the other hand, distraught relatives were watching.

More than 1,000 people were involved in the rescue, the Ministry of Railways said on Twitter.

“The aim is that by Wednesday morning all restoration work will be completed and the tracks can be operated,” Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

At the business center where the bodies were taken for identification, dozens of relatives waited, many crying and clutching ID cards and photos of missing loved ones.

Kanchan Choudhury, 49, is looking for her husband at the centre. Five people from his village were on the train, four of whom were hospitalized with injuries.

Her husband was found dead, she said in tears as she waited to seek compensation, carrying her and her husband’s ID cards.

Families of the deceased will receive 1 million rupees ($12,000) in compensation, while the seriously injured will receive 200,000 rupees, including 50,000 rupees for minor injuries, Vaishnaw said on Saturday.

Pope Francis, US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed their condolences.