Andhra Pradesh officials trying to trace 113 passengers of Coromandel Express

Andhra Pradesh officials are trying to ascertain the whereabouts of 113 passengers who were traveling in the fateful Coromandel Express on Friday night and were to deboard at various railway stations in the state.

482 passengers of the train were identified as either belonging to Andhra Pradesh or traveling to the state.

“267 were found to be safe, 20 incurred minor injuries while 82 passengers had cancelled their journeys. However, the remaining 113 passengers are either not picking calls on their mobile phones or their devices are switched off. We are trying to confirm their location and situation,” state Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana said after a review meeting in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

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Out of the 482 Andhra Pradesh-bound passengers, 309 were to get down at Visakhapatnam, 31 in Rajahmundry, five in Eluru and 137 in Vijayawada.

The minister said that 89 people from Andhra Pradesh had reserved seats/berths on the Yeshvanthpur Express going to Howrah which was also involved in the major rail tragedy near Balasore in Odisha.

“49 among them are safe, two injured, and 10 did not board the train. No response on the mobile phones of 28 passengers,” Botcha said.

“There is no confirmed information yet about the deaths of passengers from Andhra Pradesh,” the senior minister said after the review, along with two other YSRCP ministers Jogi Ramesh and Karumuri Nageswara Rao, on the state's preparedness in providing relief, support to the victims.

Two injured passengers who managed to reach Visakhapatnam were admitted to a private hospital for treatment of their head and back injuries.

The Jaganmohan Reddy government has sent 50 ambulances to Odisha and has also kept a chopper on standby to airlift any passenger needing better medical care.

Also Read | Odisha train accident: Preliminary probe suggests Coromandel Express entered loop line instead of main line, hit goods train

Earlier on Saturday, Chief Minister Reddy, who expressed shock over the train mishap in Odisha, held a high-level meeting reviewing the situation. Reddy ordered inquiry and grievance cells to be set up in the district collectorates for immediate response.

A team of senior officials led by IT, industries minister Gudivada Amarnath is in Odisha to assess the situation and offer help to Andhra Pradesh passengers.

CM directed officials to make necessary arrangements in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam district hospitals to provide medical treatment to the victims from the state.