New Delhi: The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), which probed the Balasore train tragedy, has said that lapses at multiple levels in Signalling and Telecommunication departments led to the accident on June 2.“Lapses at multiple levels in the S&T department were responsible for the accident,” the report by CRS concluded.“The rear-collision was due to the lapses in signal-circuit-alteration carried at the North Signal Goomty (of the station) in the past, and during the execution of signalling work related to the replacement of Electric Lifting Barrier for level crossing gate no.94 at the station. These lapses resulted in wrong signalling for Train No. 12841 (Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express) wherein the UP Home signal indicated Green aspect for run-through movement on the Up main line of the station, but the crossover connecting the Up main line to Up loop line (crossover 17A/B) was set to the Up loop line; the wrong signalling resulted in the Train No. 12841 traversing on the Up loop line, and eventual rear-collision with Goods Train (No. N/DDIP) standing there,” the report explained.“Lapses at multiple levels at the Signalling and telecommunications department were responsible for the #Odishatrainaccident” the Commissioner of Railways Safety has written in his final probe report. Mentions past systematic failures and red flags that were ignored. pic.twitter.com/KfKxHllZpS— Anisha Dutta (@A2D2_) July 4, 2023The CRS report was submitted to the Railway Board on Wednesday, June 28, and will not be available to the public. A Hindustan Times report, quoting a senior official, said it is to ensure that there is no influence or interference on the parallel Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The central probe agency is investigating possible sabotage or conspiracy behind the incident.The CRS probe has found that the signalling maintainer at Bahanaga Bazar station submitted a “disconnection memo” (to shut down the interlocking system and start work) to the station master to carry out repair work, which is part of normal procedure. After the work concluded, a “reconnection memo” (reconnection of the system indicating the end of work) was issued, indicating that the electronic interlocking signalling system was live.But, a Railway Board official told Indian Express that the safety protocol of testing the signalling system before allowing a train to pass was not followed. In fact, the signalling staff continued to attend work even after the reconnection memo was issued. Therefore, the source told, the blame for the accident must go to the station’s operations staff and signalling maintenance staff.Even though the reconnection memo was received by the station master, the work was not complete, for the technician responsible for it bypassed the system. “In reality, the technician bypassed the system because the work was not complete and he rigged the location box to get a ‘green signal’ for the Coromandel Express,” HT report quoted a railway official as saying.The report has also found lapses with regard to the protocols in place to access the relay room which is the nerve centre of the electronic interlocking signalling system. Both the signalling staff and the station master are accountable for the railway system.“It is the protocol that whenever maintenance of assets of any nature is carried out, the operations staff is also responsible for the safety of trains along with the engineering staff concerned, be it track-related or signalling related,” the Railway Board official told IE.On the other hand, days before the CRS report was submitted to the Railway Board, a letter was sent out internally ordering a double-locking arrangement for all its relay rooms with train controlling mechanisms, relay huts (having signalling and telecommunications equipment of level-crossings), and point and track circuit signals. This was done with the intention to make the access to the relay room tamper-proof which could be achieved by a double locking system that would not allow access to the rooms.This letter indicated that “access to the relay room” was key to the “signalling interference” that caused the Coromandel Express to take the loop line at Balasore and crash into a stationary goods train, HT report said.The June 2 tragedy, involving two passenger trains and one goods train, was one of the worst train accidents the country has witnessed in recent years. It claimed nearly 300 lives and left over 1,200 injured. The Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express entered the loop line at the Bahanaga Bazar station instead of the designated main line and rammed into a stationary goods train. The train derailed and parts of it hit another train, the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast, which also derailed, resulting in high casualty figures.An initial probe had suggested a signalling interference, either by negligence or by intent as the probable cause of the accident.This article, first published on July 1, 2023 at 3:03 pm, was updated with additional inputs on July 4, 2023 at 1:43 pm.
