Kolkata: A school barely 500 meters away from the railway track that saw the deadliest rail accident in recent times became a temporary mortuary on 2 June.
The Bahanaga High School opened its gates as mangled bodies were dragged out from the ill-fated Coromandel Express, which collided with two other trains. At least 288 people died and more than 1,200 were injured that ill-fated evening.
Not just the injured, but corpses were lined up in classrooms which otherwise echoed with the laughter of primary school students.
As dawn broke on 3 June, wailing families scanned through hundreds of dead bodies in search of their loved ones. The open room, usually used for morning prayers, was then a mortuary.
Over two hundred bodies were kept for the next two days to be identified. Most of them beyond recognition, no limbs, broken heads, organs protruding from the bare remains.
While the dead got a temporary home, the children are now scared to go back.
Around 300 students study in this government-run high school established in 1958 in the Balasore district.
Headmistress Pramila Swain told ThePrint that parents were doubtful of sending their children back as they feared the tragic scenes from the train collision “would haunt the young ones”. “Though senior students have been attending classes, the junior students didn’t look forward to returning after their summer vacations,” she said.
A portion of the open prayer room, and two classrooms are now being demolished and will be rebuilt to allay fears of students and parents.
An official press release from the Odisha Chief Minister’s office Friday announced that the elementary and primary sections would be razed and converted into a model school. A model school includes smart classrooms, library, labs and modern technology for educational purposes.
The press note read: “The coffins of the people who died in the terrible train accident at Bahanaga railway station were temporarily kept at Bahanaga High School. Later, the bodies were taken elsewhere, and the school was cleaned, but there is fear among students, teachers and the public. Therefore, there were demands from various quarters regarding the demolition of the school and its reconstruction.”
The decision to demolish the school was taken by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena and Secretary (5T) to CM VK Pandian after they held a virtual meeting with the school management, Panchayat committee members, students, teachers, guardians, the Balasore district administration and the education secretary on Thursday.
Balasore District Magistrate Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde told reporters that five to six classrooms would be razed, where students had seen “blood stains on the benches of the dining room where they ate their lunch”.
The administration hopes to complete the fresh construction before the school reopens on 19 June after the summer vacation.
Also read: After Odisha tragedy, rush to offer closure to shattered families — ‘missing is not good enough’