As many as 29 victims of the Bahanaga triple train tragedy in Odisha’s Balasore district on June 2 are yet to be identified.

A total of 295 people were killed in the accident. The bodies are waiting for identification even two months after the accident.

The bodies are still being preserved in the morgues of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar. No one has come forward to claim these 29 bodies.

In a press release, the AIIMS-Bhubaneswar on Tuesday said, “The national institute had received 162 bodies in two phases. As of today, AIIMS Bhubaneswar has handed over 133 bodies to their relatives and family members.”

It said that in the first phase, 81 bodies were delivered and in the second phase 52 bodies were dispatched to their families.

“Due to multiple claimants and few other issues, DNA samples of bodies as well as claimants were sent to New Delhi for matching,” the release said.

Preserving the bodies is a difficult task. But the Odisha government had decided that all efforts will be made to ensure that the bodies were preserved till they were identified and handed over to their family members.

The government has also kept the option of DNA test open in case of need.

The lapses in the signalling circuit alteration led to the horrific accident involving three trains — The Chennai-bound Coromandel Express Bangalore-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train. Coromandel Express hit a stationary goods train after entering the loop track. Its derailed carriages crashed into the two rear bogies of the Bangalore-Howrah Superfast Express.