The government officials on Friday, June 9, demolished the Bahanaga Bazar High School building in Balasore district of Odisha that was used as a temporary mortuary after the Coromandel Express crash on June 2. The school was turned into a temporary mortuary for keeping 288 bodies recovered from the accident site.
The deadly train crash involving Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train on June 2 left 288 passengers dead and over 1,000 injured. The triple train accident had taken place about 100 metres away from Bahanaga Bazar High School near the Bahanaga railway station.
Two days after the incident, the state government shifted the deceased bodies from the school to different hospitals in the state capital Bhubaneswar.
After the rescue operation was completed and normalcy restored on the route, the teachers of the school and parents of many students urged the district administration to demolish the building — they claimed the building was “haunted” after it was used as a temporary mortuary. Many declared that the students were scared to attend the class in those rooms.
“Parts of the Bahanaga school building in Balasore are being razed. This comes after the parents expressed their reluctance to send their children to school after it was turned into a temporary mortuary for the deceased of the Balasore Train Accident,” ANI tweeted sharing a video of the demolition.
#WATCH | Odisha | Parts of Bahanaga school building in Balasore are being razed. This comes after the parents expressed their reluctance in sending their children to school after it was turned into a temporary mortuary for the deceased of #BalasoreTrainAccident
A teacher says,… pic.twitter.com/dm4zt5mHwZ— ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2023
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed the authorities to completely revamp and renovate the school under the 5T initiative. The CMO said on Friday, June 9, that the primary and elementary school buildings on the premises would be completely demolished.
The school managing committee was present during the demolition of the building. "The school managing committee had suggested that the school building should be demolished so that the fear in the children’s minds would be dissipated," Pramila Swain, headmistress of Bahanaga Bazar High School reportedly said.
The school building was demolished in the presence of local police and tehsildar. According to Ommcomnews, the school premises will be sanctified after the demolition and a local priest has been assigned the responsibility. The school will reopen on June 19 after the summer vacation.
