A week after the train fire, bodies continue to arrive

A pall of gloom descends on the villages as last rites are performed

Bodies of the passengers aboard the Tamil Nadu Express that caught fire continue to arrive one after another even a week after the accident that occurred on July 30.

The family members of M.V. Sambasiva Rao (34), who succumbed to burns in the train mishap, performed the funeral at his native village Javvanapudi in Krishna district on Friday. Mr. Rao suffered 80 per cent burns.

The charred body of Ilapogu Nagarani (52) was brought to his native place at Nandigama in the district and the final rites were performed on Saturday. Nagarani’s daughter Pallavi and his son-in-law K. Venkata Ramana of Anigandlapadu village in the district, also died in the accident.

A pall of gloom descended in the villages with the bodies of the victims arriving one after the other. The body of S. Jaswani (22), arrived a couple of days after the accident to his house in Kanuru village.

Of the 28 passengers who boarded the New Delhi-Chennai Central train which met with the fire accident at Nellore on July 30, most of them were youth and were working as software professionals in Chennai or on lookout for jobs.

The software engineers and the young couples used to shuttle between Chennai and Vijayawada during weekends to spend time with their families.

“Young engineers used to prefer Tamil Nadu express train which arrives in Vijayawada around midnight (12.15 a.m.) and reach Chennai at 7.15 a.m. which was convenient for the techies to attend their office”, said an engineer.

“My brother, Venkata Ramana, used to travel by TN express. But, we never expected that it was his last visit. It is our misfortune that three members of our family died in the accident”, Ramana’s elder brother K. Nagaraju bemoaned.