AI tech, SIM triangulation: How railways is identifying unclaimed bodies of Odisha crash victims
Five days after the horrific triple train crash in Odisha’s Balasore, dozens of bodies of the passengers who died in the accident still remain unidentified.
As many as 288 people lost their life in the accident that happened last Friday. Railway officials said there were 83 unclaimed bodies as of Wednesday.
The railways is now using artificial intelligence-powered website and SIM card triangulation to identify the unclaimed bodies.
Initially, the railways had called a team from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to the accident site to take thumbprints of the dead to ascertain their identity.
However, the method did not work out since the skin of the thumbs of victims were damaged and prints were difficult to take.
“Then we thought of identifying the bodies using Sanchar Saathi which is an AI-based portal,” an official said.
The recently launched Sanchar Saathi web portal was put to use to identify 64 bodies and it was successful in 45 cases, officials said.
Sanchar Saathi allows customers to know the mobile connections issued in their name and also track and block their lost smartphones.
This artificial intelligence-based portal was recently launched by railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw who also holds the information and technology portfolio.
To identify the bodies of the train accident victims, the portal traced the victims’ phone numbers and Aadhaar details using their photographs.
Following this, their family members were contacted, officials said.
But officials added that even this was an uphill task since many of these bodies were beyond recognition.
“Some have no identifiable features left. It is difficult to identify them even from their clothes since they are caked with blood,” an officer said.
Railway officials are also hoping to identify some bodies by using cellphone impressions around the accident sites.
By tracing calls made through nearby towers just before the accident and linking them to those which shut down immediately at the time of the crash, the railways is trying to figure out if they belonged to the unidentified victims.
“We are trying to trace phones which were active just before the accident and shut down as soon as it happened.
“So far, out of the 45 unclaimed bodies we are trying to trace through this method, we found 15 phones which were switched off but those were of survivors. We are still trying to trace the other 30,” an official said.
The railways made mammoth efforts to complete its rescue and restoration work in 51 hours. The ministry deployed eight teams, each comprising 70 personnel and headed by an officer for the operation. DRMs and GMs supervised four teams each.
Five cameras transmitted live to Rail Bhawan where it was monitored from the war room. The teams and officers did eight-hour shifts and took adequate breaks, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express on Wednesday passed the accident site in Odisha’s Balasore, days after it was reduced to a mangled heap of steal in the deadly crash.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe in the triple train accident and has also registered an FIR.
The CBI was handed over the probe into the accident after some railway officials suspected “deliberate interference” in the electronic interlocking system.
(With inputs from PTI)
