- Revision is needed to address the problems at the rail-road barrier.
- The report states that the connection went awry due to the lack of a standard circuit diagram.
- It shows a poorly running passenger train on the way of a goods train.
An official investigation has revealed that a faulty connection in the automatic signaling system to the railway network during repair work on a rail-road barrier caused India’s worst train accident in two decades.
At least 288 people were killed and over 1,000 others were injured when three trains collided at Bahanaga Bazar station in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, in the deadly June 2 rail tragedy.
The disaster occurred when a passenger train collided with a stationary freight train and derailed after hitting another passenger train coming from the opposite direction.
seen in the investigation report reutersInvestigators from the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) said the first collision was caused by modifications made to the signaling circuit to fix persistent problems at a nearby rail-road barrier.
It said local railway staff did not have standard circuit diagrams, which led to faulty connections in the signaling system when they tried to take the boom-barrier circuit offline for repairs. It said the faulty system directed the passenger train into the path of the goods train.
Reuters first reported last month that investigators were focusing on repair work on the rail-road blockage and its possible connection to a manual bypass of the signaling system.
Indian Railways, the world’s fourth largest train network, is a state monopoly operated by the Railway Board. The Board reports to the Ministry of Railways.
The rail network is undergoing a $30 billion transformation with gleaming new trains and modern stations under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to boost infrastructure and connectivity, but the accident has raised questions about whether enough attention has been paid to safety. going.
The CRS probe report stated that there were lapses at multiple levels in the Signal and Telecom department and standard operating procedures were not followed during the repair work.
