CM to felicitate Bahanaga bravehearts

Bhubaneswar: People involved in the rescue operations in the Bahanaga triple-train tragedy will be felicitated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on Sunday, official sources said on Thursday. The state-level felicitation ceremony is scheduled to be held at Lok Seva Bhawan at 5 pm. The CM will acknowledge the selfless services rendered by the community volunteers, response forces and institutions during the rescue operations on June 2, a senior government officer told TOI.Thousands of passengers were travelling in the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express when it collided with a stationary goods train on the loop line and derailed. The derailed coaches veered off the track and hit the tail end of the Bengaluru-Howrah express train, which was crossing on the parallel line. While 296 passengers died, 1,200 injured were admitted to different hospitals.The Balasore administration has sent a list of local people, personnel of different government and private agencies mobilised in the rescue operation to the government for felicitation. Rescue teams of different departments like Odisha police, fire service, Odisha disaster rapid action force (ODRAF), national disaster response force (NDRF), railway protection force (RPF), doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff, blood donors, people of Bahanaga and volunteers of different NGOs are likely to be felicitated.