Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC), which provides railway ticketing services, denied Congress' claims that thousands of Indians cancelled their tickets following the unfortunate accident in Odisha and termed it as factually incorrect.
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"This is factually incorrect. Cancellations have not increased. On the contrary, cancellations have reduced from 7.7 Lakh on June 1, 2023 to 7.5 Lakh on June 3, 2023," IRCTC tweeted June 6. Congress leader and former Union Minister Bhakta Charan Das, at a press conference on June 5, claimed thousands of people have cancelled their tickets after the accident and said they were not feeling safe to travel.
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“Such a train accident has never happened in the past. Hundreds of people lost their lives and more than a thousand people were injured. This incident has hurt everyone. Thousands of people have cancelled their tickets after the accident. They feel that travelling in the train is not safe," Mr. Das said, speaking in Hindi.
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The unfortunate train accident in Odisha's Balasore on June 2 left at least 275 dead and over 1,000 injured.
The accident involved Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Coromandel Express and the goods train on three separate tracks at Bahanaga Bazar Station in the Balasore district.
As many as 17 coaches of these two passenger trains were derailed and severely damaged in the deadly accident. The restoration work at the accident site for the regular movement of trains has been completed.