Odisha Train Tragedy: Sudarsan Pattnaik Dedicates Sand Art To Survivors, Prays For Their Speedy Recovery

The train crash happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district.

New Delhi: Sudarsan Pattnaik, the world-famous and Padma Shri recipient sand artist from Puri, Odisha, has paid tributes to the people who lost their lives in the deadly train tragedy in Odisha’s Balasore on Friday. He also prayed for a speedy recovery of the injured.

Sudarsan Pattnaik on Saturday tweeted: My deepest condolences to the affected families. 🙏Praying to Mahaprabhu Jagannath for speedy recovery of survivors” . sand art at puri beach in Odisha. #OdishaTrainTragedy.

My deepest condolences to the affected families. 🙏
Praying to Mahaprabhu Jagannath for speedy recovery of survivors” . sand art at puri beach in Odisha.#OdishaTrainTragedy pic.twitter.com/ctZ5SMoDUQ

— Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) June 3, 2023

According to the latest inputs, more than 280 people have lost their lives and around 900 are injured in the crash involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train on Friday.

The train crash happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 pm on Friday. In terms of the number of lives lost, the Coromandel Express Accident is as deadly as Gaisal (1999) and Jnaneswari (2010), both in West Bengal.

On Saturday, the Indian Railways said the death toll from the accident has climbed to 288. “As of 2 PM today, the death toll in the Odisha train crash has risen to 288 while 747 people have been injured along with 56 grievously injured,” Indian Railways said in a statement.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that a signal was given to Coromandel Express to enter the main line but it was taken off and the train entered the loop line, where it crashed into a goods train parked there.

Seventeen coaches were derailed and were severely damaged in the accident, trapping hundreds of passengers. Both passenger trains were at a high speed and it has been cited by experts as one of the main reasons for the high number of casualties.