Odisha Train Tragedy: School Doubling Up As Morgue To Be Reconstructed Under 5T Initiative

Bhubaneswar: The 65-year-old Bahanaga High School in Odisha’s Balasore district, where bodies of train accident victims were kept, will be completely demolished and reconstructed under the 5T initiative of the Odisha government, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced on Friday.

The decision was taken after Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena, 5T Secretary VK Pandian, and other concerned officials held meeting with Balasore Collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde, members of the school managing committee, panchayat representatives, teachers and students via videoconferencing to seek their opinion in this regard.

The demolition work started this morning in the presence of school managing committee members and Works Department authorities.

Students and teachers had expressed reluctance to attend school, where classrooms and the hall were used to line up the bodies, many of them disfigured, despite those being cleaned and sanitised by Fire Service personnel with memories of nightmarish experience of the tragedy deeply entrenched in their minds. With locals alleging that the rooms still had bloodstains at some places, the authorities feared that the school might see zero attendance once it reopened after summer vacation.

“Considering children’s mental health, a decision was taken in the meeting to demolish Bahanga Bazar High School and the primary and elementary schools in its vicinity. It will be developed into a model school under 5T initiative,” Pandian said.

Awareness programmes will also be conducted for the students to eradicate their fear regarding the building.

Notably, bodies of Bahanaga Bazar train accident victims were shifted to the school immediately after being retrieved from the mangled coaches. Those were later were relocated to a spacious building on the outskirts of Balasore town. Later the unidentified corpses were shifted to morgues in Bhubaneswar-based hospitals.