Top railway official Jaya Varma Sinha on Sunday said that the preliminary findings suggest that there has been some issue with the signalling. Only Coromandel Express met with an accident. The train was at a speed of around 128 km/h, she added.
Sinha, who is Railway Board’s member of operation and business development, further said that they are still waiting for the detailed report from the commissioner of Railway safety.
Elaborating on the events that led to the horrific train accident, Sinha said, “The goods train did not get derailed. Since the goods train was carrying iron ores, the maximum damage of the impact was on Coromandel Express. This is the reason for a huge number of deaths and injuries.”
“The derailed bogies of Coromandel Express came on the down line, and hit the last two bogies of Yesvantpur Express which was crossing at the speed of 126 km/h from down line,” she added.
The officer further said that the Railways has decided a priority high-speed section for ‘Kavach’ and the fund has been sanctioned. “This is an indigenous development, so we have a production limit. But the ‘Kavach’ will be rolled out on every section, she said.
Sinha added, “In this situation, even if ‘Kavach’ would have been present, it would not have worked as the distance was just 100 metres and ‘Kavach’ needs at least 60 metres to react. Also, it would not work on the main line.” On the angle of sabotage, the officer said, “Nothing has been ruled out yet.”
Earlier on Sunday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the issue identified for the accident is of electric point machine, a vital device for railway signalling, and electronic interlocking.
The change that was made to electronic interlocking which led to the accident has been identified, Vaishnaw said while denying that the incident had anything to do with the anti-collision system ‘Kavach’.
The crash involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, which were carrying around 2,500 passengers, and a goods train occurred around 7 pm on Friday near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore. At least 275 people were dead and over 1,100 injured in the accident.
“The enquiry into the accident has been completed and as soon as the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) provides his report all the details will be known. The root cause of the horrifying incident has been identified… I do not want to go into details. Let the report come out. I will just say that the root cause and the people responsible have been identified,” the railway minister said.
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