Train Accident: Lapses in signalling-circuit-alteration caused Odisha train accident: Union railway minister | India News

NEW DELHI: Lapses in the ‘signalling-circuit-alteration’ led to wrong signals and caused the tragic triple train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district on June 2 that claimed 295 lives, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Sharing details from the Commissioner of Railway Safety’s report for the first time, the Union minister said: “The rear-collision was due to the lapses in the signalling-circuit-alteration carried out at the North Signal Goomty (of the station) in the past, and during the execution of the signalling work related to replacement of Electric Lifting Barrier for level crossing gate no.94 at the Station.”

“These lapses resulted in wrong signalling to Train No. 12841 wherein the UP Home Signal indicated a Green aspect for run-through movement on the UP main line of the station, but the crossover connecting the UP main line to the 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 the Goods train (No. N/DDIP) standing there,” Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha.

The minister was replying to questions by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader John Brittas and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh in Rajya Sabha.
’41 deceased not yet identified’
The tragic triple train accident on June 2 involved the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express, the Howrah-bound Shalimar Express and a goods train.
Vaishnaw said 295 passengers lost their lives while 176 sustained grievous injuries, 451 suffered simple injuries and 180 received First Aid Treatment and left.
“In the said accident 41 deceased persons have not yet been identified,” Vaishnaw told the Upper House. “The mortal remains of unidentified passengers have been retained in medically prescribed ways at AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar. DNA samples have been taken for analysis at CFSL, New Delhi,” he added.

The Departmental Inquiry Committee and the Commissioner of Railway Safety are the main agencies probing the causes of the accident.
Vaishnaw also informed the House that till July 16, Rs 29.49 crore has been paid as enhanced ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each to the next of kin of each deceased, Rs 2 lakh each to the grievously injured and Rs 50,000 each to the passengers with simple injury.
As on July 13, as many as 258 claim cases have been received in various benches of the Railway Claims Tribunal, of which 51 claims have been disposed off, he said.
The minister further said there have been 13 instances of signalling failure in the railways in the past five years but no incident due to defects in the interlocking signal system.
Kavach deployed on 1,465 route km
Rajya Sabha was also informed that the automatic train protection system, Kavach, has so far been deployed on 1,465 route km and 121 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) in the South Central Railway.
Kavach tenders have been awarded for Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors (approximately 3,000 route km) and the work is in progress on these routes.
“Indian Railways is preparing Detailed Project Report and detailed estimate for another 6,000 rkm. The amount spent so far on Kavach implementation is Rs 351.91 crore. The cost for provision of track side including station equipment of Kavach is approximately Rs 50 lakh/km and cost for provision of Kavach equipment on loco is approximately Rs 70 lakh/loco,” he said, adding efforts are being made to develop more vendors to enhance the capacity and scale up the implementation of Kavach.
Vaishnaw also said that from 2017-18 to 2021-22, an expenditure of Rs 1.08 lakh crore was incurred on Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh works. RRSK created in 2017-18 for execution of assessed safety works with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years.
(With inputs from agencies)