An aerial view of three trains that collided with each other resulting in a major accident in which at least 300 passengers lost their lives, in Balasore district of Odisha on Saturday. At least 900 people were injured and were admitted to Balasore Medical college. (ANI Photo)
It’s been more than a month now when in one of the deadliest train accidents in India, at least 300 people lost their lives. However, though the administration swung into action to quickly restore normalcy and provide best possible aid to the survivors, the real cause of the Balasore train accident is yet to be ascertained. It was last month that the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) submitted its report.
Two Enquiry Commissions Set Up to Look Into Odisha Train Accident at Balasore
Soon after the train accident at Balasore on June 2, 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that those involved in this deadly accident would not be spared and similar views were aired by Union Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw. Probe was ordered to find out the real cause of the accident and two enquiry commissions were set up. One inquiry was done by the Commissioner Railway Safety (CRS) and the other one was done by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The focus of the CRS enquiry was to probe and bring to the fore if the accident took place due to technical fault while the CBI investigation was aimed at looking into extraneous factors such as sabotage or any external involvement.
The CRS had submitted its report about the Balasore train accident to the Railway Board and the copy of the same was made available to the Central Bureau of investigation.
Was Amir Khan Involved in Wrong Signal Connection?
In the CRS report, it was mentioned that during cross questioning at a later stage, certain information was revealed by Senior Section Engineer Amir Khan which allegedly puts him in the dock along with Abinash Ranjan Mohanty.
It has been alleged that Amir Khan was involved in a wrong signal circuit connection due to which when the green signal was given for the main line, the point machine changed in the opposite direction to the loop line where the goods train was already stationed.
The Coromandel Express which was running at full speed and was supposed to go through the main line was forced to divert to the loopline, thereby resulting in collision with the goods train. Also, the unfortunate mishap could have been averted had Abinash Ranjan Mohanty checked the proper functioning of all the points and signal aspects before signing the reconnection memo. The memo is signed only after the signalling work is completed and proper checking has been done. However, in this case, it seems that Mohanty signed the memo without checking the signal system.
The CRS in its report mentioned that Azad Sr DSTEC/Co/KGP, Amir Khan SSE/Signal/SFO and Pappu Kumar Tech/III/Sigl/BLS prepared and submitted the as-made-wiring diagram of ELB for LC 94 by modifying the wiring diagram of LC 79/BLS. A glance at the wiring diagrams revealed that the wiring diagram of LC-79 could not be implemented in toto and a lot of alterations had to be done to suit the site-conditions which should not have been left to the discretion of the field supervisors.
Could the deadly train accident be averted?
The CRS has mentioned in its report that almost two weeks before the accident, similar incident of mismatch of intended route set by the signals and actual that was taken by the train on May 16, 2023 at the BKNM station in Kharagpur Division of South Eastern Railway on account of wrong wiring and cable fault. The CRS in its report highlighted, “ “Had corrective measures been taken after this incident, to address the issue of wrong wiring, the accident at Bahanaga Bazar station would not have occurred.”
Decline in the total number of Rail Accidents
The data by the Indian Railways Yearbook shows that there has been a significant decline in train related accidents that have occurred since 2013. This clearly shows that apart from upgrading the infrastructure, the Indian government has taken all possible steps to ensure the safety of the passengers.
Indian Railways- Lifeline for the Common Man
Lakhs of people use the Indian railways every day as it is considered a lifeline for them to travel from one place to another at an affordable price. The past decade, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, there has been a significant improvement in the overall rail infrastructure as well. A number of high speed trains have been launched and adequate steps have been taken to upgrade the railway stations so as to provide maximum facilities to the passengers.
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