A total 29 of the 81 bodies of victims of Balasore train accident kept in All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Bhubaneswar have been identified and six of them have been handed over to their families on Friday.
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) mayor Sulochana Das said the government has made arrangements to send all the identified bodies to their native places.
Of the 81 bodies preserved at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, 29 have been identified based on DNA analysis. We have started the process of handing the bodies to their families, Das said.
"Six families reached AIIMS Bhubaneswar and received the bodies," a Railway official said.
Indian Railways and AIIMS Bhubaneswar opted for DNA analysis after there were multiple claimants over one body, Das said.
There were multiple claimants for 15 bodies and the DNA reports were received from the central laboratory in Delhi after about 20 days, officials said.
A total of 88 DNA samples were sent for identification of the 81 bodies, they said.
The six bodies which were handed over were of two persons each from Bihar and West Bengal and one each from Jharkhand and Odisha, the Railway official said.
The body of Samir Bauri, who hailed from Adra in West Bengal, was handed over to his family along with the ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh as announced by Indian Railways.
The other bodies which were handed over to their families were those of Manas Maity of Purba Medinipur of West Bengal, Suraj Kumar Rishi of Purnia and Sujit Kumar of Balia in Bihar, he said.
The body of Bhim Choudhury of Jharkhand was handed over to his parents. However, they could not be given the ex-gratia due to an error in his Aadhar card. An escort vehicle will go with them, the official said.
The body of Brahmakant Das of Odisha was also handed to his family members in the evening, he said.
Of the 293 persons killed in the accident involving Shalimar-Chennai-bound Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a stationary goods train, 287 had died on the spot while six others succumbed to their injuries in hospitals.
The accident took place near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district on June 2 evening.
While most of the bodies were handed over to their families, 81 of them could not be identified due to their multiple claimants and have been preserved in four separate containers procured from Paradip Port.
The bodies are being kept at minus 17 degrees Celsius in the containers, an official said.
