NEW DELHI: Hours after Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said he suspected that some “changes” in the electronic interlocking system could have caused the disastrous train accident at Balasore in Odisha, the Railway Board on Sunday sought to give the sequence of the accident at a hurriedly called media briefing.
Jaya Verma Sinha, member of, the Railway Board (Operation & Business and Development), said a prima facie problem in the “signalling” system “could be” the reason behind the accident. Explaining how the point machine and the interlocking system function, she said that the system is “error proof” and “fail safe” but did not rule out the possibility of external interference.
She asserted that only the Coromandel Express was directly hit in the accident. She said the express train was running with the LHB coaches which normally don’t turn turtle in a mishap. But in this accident, it was knocked down by the heavy force of the Coromandel Express which was running at a high speed of 128 kmph.
Earlier in the day, Ashwini Vaishnaw, camping at the accident site for 36 hours since the accident, told the media that the “root cause” of the crash and the people responsible for it had been identified. The minister had earlier said that some changes in the electronic interlocking system stood out as a prima facie cause behind the accident. “The change that was made to electronic interlocking which led to the accident has been identified,” he said.
In Delhi, Sinha said the investigation into the accident by the CRS was about to be completed and that the final cause of would be known thereafter. “Safety is the top priority for the Railways. It wants to ensure that the evidence is not tampered with and no witness is affected after the accident,” she said.
She said that some issues with the signalling are being suspected behind the accident. “But let it be known that only Coromandel Express met with an accident in Balasore that claimed the lives of as many as 275 people and that wrong information is floating around about the involvement of three trains in the accident,” she said.
She clarified that only Coromandel Express met with an accident when it was running at a speed of 128kmph. She denied that the goods train had also derailed, saying that the goods train was stationary and was loaded with iron ore. “The good train did not get damaged due to its heavy gravitational force even after being hit by Coromandel Express,” she said.
She also clarified that derailed coaches of the Coromandel hit the last two coaches of Yashwantpur Express which was running at a speed of 126 kmph from the down line. She said that the restoration work on the two main lines would be completed by Sunday late night. When asked about the findings of the investigation, she said prime facie signalling-related issues are responsible, but authentic information can be shared only after the CRS inquiry.
