Balasore tragedy: Railways using technology to identify victims

New Delhi, June 7

The Railways is using an artificial intelligence-powered website and SIM card triangulation to identify the unclaimed bodies of the Odisha three train crash victims.

Of the 288 people killed in the accident on June 2, as many as 83 bodies remained unclaimed as of Wednesday, officials said. The Railways initially called a team from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to take thumbprints of the dead for their identity.

“That did not work out since in most cases the skin of the thumb was 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 recenly launched Sanchar Saathi portal was put to use to identify 64 bodies and it was successful in 45 cases.

Sanchar Saathi allows customers to know the mobile connections issued in their name and also track and block their lost smartphones. This AI-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.

However, it was an uphill task as 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 official said.

Also, 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.