"Thousands Of Tickets" Cancelled After Odisha Crash, Claims Congress. Railways Says "Factually Incorrect"

The ticketing arm of Indian Railways has denied the claim made by a Congress leader that "thousands of people" have cancelled their train tickets after the accident in Odisha's Balasore.  IRCTC's response was posted on its Twitter handle in response to claims made by Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das at a press conference. A short clip of the press conference was posted by the Congress party on its official Twitter handle in which it said that the incident has hurt everyone.

"Such a train accident has never happened in the past. Hundreds of people lost their lives and more than a thousand people were injured. This incident has hurt everyone. Thousands of people have cancelled their tickets after the accident. They feel that traveling in the train is not safe," the Congress tweet said, attributing the quote to Mr Das.

Reacting strongly to it, IRCTC said the claim if "factually incorrect". It also presented the data of ticket booking and cancellation after the deadly crash on Friday, May 2.

"Cancellations have not increased. On the contrary, cancellations have reduced from 7.7 Lakh on 01.06.23 to 7.5 Lakh on 03.06.23," IRCTC said in its tweet.

This is factually incorrect. Cancellations have not increased. On the contrary, cancellations have reduced from 7.7 Lakh on 01.06.23 to 7.5 Lakh on 03.06.23. https://t.co/tn85n03WPn

— IRCTC (@IRCTCofficial) June 6, 2023

At least 278 people lost their lives and 1,000 were injured when a speeding Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train. Subsequently, the Howrah Express, traveling from Yesvantpur to Howrah, collided with the affected carriages at high speed, resulting in further derailment.

Officials said on Monday that 101 bodies are yet to be identified.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the Balasore accident site from ground zero and also visited the injured being treated at the hospital.

The crash will be investigated by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The detailed probe by the top agency can establish criminal tampering, if any, with the point machine or the electronic interlocking system, or if the train changed tracks due to reconfiguration or a signalling error.