How Mandaviya-Led Team Managed Balasore Train Accident Crisis Following PM Modi’s Call

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a call to the Union Health Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, after the triple-train accident in Odisha’s Balasore on Sunday. In a short conversation, PM Modi asked Mandaviya to rush to the accident site. Within an hour of the call, Mandaviya arrived at the site with a special team of doctors from AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital. The team’s primary responsibility was the identification and delivery of bodies to their families, and the preservation of the bodies was crucial. Mandaviya arranged for two vessels with refrigeration from shipping ministry officials to preserve the bodies since Balasore had limited resources. To ensure that the job of embalming the bodies was completed as quickly as possible, Mandaviya called for additional doctors from AIIMS Nagpur, Raipur, and Bibinagar. The doctors were experts in embalming and ensured that no dead body was left to decompose. Mandaviya also arranged for adequate arrangements of food and water and a helpdesk for identification, enabling families to claim their injured members and the bodies of the deceased. The whole government approach involved three union ministers, Ashwini Vaishnaw Dharmendra Pradhan and Mansukh Mandaviya, standing with folded hands before the doctors and medical staff who went beyond the call of duty.