- Saturday, April 27, 2024
The prime minister reached the eastern state in an Air Force helicopter and was set to meet injured in various hospitals in the state.
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (3) visited the accident site near Bahanaga Bazar railway station in Balasore in the eastern state of Odisha where a three-train collision led to deaths of nearly 300 people and left almost 1,000 injured.
One passenger train hit the derailed coaches of another and the collision also involved a good train.
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The leader, who was seen reviewing the situation and speaking to officials and rescue personnel, will also meet the injured at hospitals in Cuttack in the state, his office tweeted.
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Modi was accompanied by railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. While Vaishnaw is a parliamentarian of the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of the parliament from Odisha, Pradhan is born in the same state.
An Air Force helicopter carried Modi to Odisha and he was also set to meet the injured in Balasore district hospital.
Earlier on Saturday, Modi convened a meeting to review the situation in connection to the disaster.
On Friday night, he tweeted expressing his grief, hours after the accident took place and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh (£1,949) for the kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 (£487) for the injured from the PM’s National Relief Fund.
An ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each deceased in the train mishap in Odisha. The injured would be given Rs. 50,000: PM @narendramodi
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 2, 2023
