Balasore, June 4: The government announced on Sunday that both the Up and Down railway tracks at the Balasore accident site had been restored. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Twitter that the track connecting Up-line has been reconnected, and overhead electrification work has begun.
“At 16.45 hours, Up-line track connecting was completed. Work on overhead electrification has begun,” Vaishnaw tweeted on Sunday. He had already tweeted that the down line that connects Howrah had been restored.
Officials stated that at least one set of railway tracks is now ready for trains, but that more time would be needed to repair all tracks, including loop lines, at the Balasore disaster site. However, until the overhead electric wire is fixed, only diesel locomotives may operate on the two rebuilt lines.
Electric trains can resume service once the overhead electric wires are fixed. They estimated it would take another three days.
The pile-up on Friday involved three trains: the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, the Bengaluru-Howrah superfast, and a cargo train. It was regarded as one of India’s deadliest railway catastrophes. The Coromandel Express collided with a halted freight train, and several of its coaches flipped, some of which landed on another train, the Bengaluru-Howrah superfast express, which was also travelling through at the same time on Friday.
