Twenty-eight passengers, including ten women, boarded the Chennai-bound Tamil Nadu Express train, which met with a major fire accident near Nellore in the early hours of Monday.
Most of the passengers who boarded the ill-fated train at Vijayawada were aged between 20 and 30 years.
According to South Central Railway (SCR) officials of Vijayawada Division, the victims were proceeding to Chennai from Warangal, Vijayawada and other places. New Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Pradeep Kumar, outgoing DRM Anurag and other officials rushed to Nellore in early in the morning.
Thirty-five passengers were burnt alive and more than 25 persons suffered critical burns in the mishap.
Teams rushed
Special teams comprising of engineering, TTEs, commercial, security, electrical and other wings were deputed to Nellore railway station for taking up relief operations for the injured passengers. A medical team was sent from Bitragunta.
Additional DRM Subba Rao was monitoring the situation from Vijayawada.
The injured were admitted to Dodla Subbareddy Government General Hospital, Nellore, Jai Bharat Hospital, Bollineni, and People’s Polyclinic Hospitals in the city, said the railway authorities here. Officials are finding in tough to trace the details of the passengers as many of them had not mentioned their address, phone numbers and other details fully on the forms while making reservation.
The SCR officials opened a help desk at Vijayawada Railway Station and Control Room at DRM’s office for disseminating information to the public about the mishap and the details of the injured/dead passengers.
