On June 2 the Coromondel Express, after reportedly changing tracks, rammed into a stationary goods train on a loop line. The impact hurtled several bogies of the passenger train which then hit the Yeshwantpur – Howrah Superfast that was passing by, causing derailment of the latter’s boggies at Balasore in Odisha. As per the latest information, there were 278 fatalities, and over 1,000 injured, making it one of India’s worst train accidents.

A probe by the Railways claimed that there was a “signalling failure” which led to Coromondel Express changing tracks. The workings of the failure is still being investigated by the Commissioner of Railway Safety. CBI has also initiated a parallel inquiry into this matter.

A senior Railway official explained that though the chance of tampering the signal is about “one in a million”, the angle of sabotage has not been completely ruled out. “All angles are being probed,” the official said.

Another official said that Coromondel could pass through only when “there was a green signal”. For the signal to malfunction it needs “to have some interference” which could be “human, manual, technical or weather related” that led to a change in the tracks. Incidentally, one of the probe panel members has already raised a dissent note where he has questioned the theory of signalling failure.

Lalit Chandra Trivedi, former General Manager of East Central Railways, in a social media post, mentioned that the Railway system as such is the safest transportation system, and multiple non-observance at multiple levels of laid down SOP needs to occur for such accidents to happen. “I am certain that the statutory enquiry that will be conducted shall bring out the details of the failure mechanism which led to this,” he said.

Also read

Where should Indian Railways focus its rail safety efforts?

Trivedi went to say that, having been associated as the chief safety officer of North-East Frontier Railway — post the Gaisal accident, one of the worst in the history of Indian Railways — lessons will be learnt and “proactive action will be taken to set the system right”.

Worst train accidents 
Nov 2016: Around 146 people were killed and more than 200 injured when an express train derailed in Uttar Pradesh.
Aug 1999: Two trains collided in Gaisal near Calcutta, leading to the deaths of at least 285 people.
Aug 1995: At least 350 people were killed when two trains collided 200 km from Delhi.
July 1988: An express train plunges into a monsoon-swollen lake near Quilon after derailing, killing at least 106 people.
June 1981: At least 800 people were killed when an overcrowded passenger train was blown off the track into a river during a cyclone.
Source: Reuters

Post the incident, the Railway Board has called for “double-locking of relay rooms”. “All relay rooms in stations should be checked and ensured for proper working of double-locking arrangement. It should also be checked and ensured that there is data logging and generation of SMS alerts for opening and closing of these relay room doors,” letter mentions. According to the letter, all shelters where such signalling instruments are kept needs to have “double-locking arrangements”.

A relay room is normally manned by Signal and Telecom staff, but it has two keys — One with the station master and the other with the S&T staff, and is opened only when no train is running.

KAVACH Roll out

India has so far seen 28 reports on the Railways (from the 10th Lok Sabha in 1993 to present ) and this includes the highly publicised Dr Anil Kakodkar-headed report of 2012.

The CAG in a December 2022 report maintained that 69 per cent of railway accidents over a four-year-period, FY18 – FY21, are because of derailments; the cause of which included track defects, engineering and maintenance issues and operating errors.

From Kakodkar report to the latest one by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, there has been multiple mentions of installing an efficient mechanism to detect on-course collisions, including the indigenously developed anti-collision system, KAVACH. Indian Railways conducted trials of ‘Kavach’ along the Lingamapalli–Vikarabad–Wadi–Vikarabad–Bidar (250 km) section of South Central Railway. And three vendors were approved for this. Till now 1,455 route kilometre of network in South Central Railway has been brought under Kavach, of which 576 route km is in Maharashtra.

However, the roll out has been slow, a senior Railway official said. Various factors like trials on the combination of various rolling stocks, varying track conditions, migration to LTE (Long Term Evolution) from the existing ultra-high frequency range have added to this. “Apart from funds, there are factors like availability of devices. You need the devices to be fitted on tracks and trains. So, some large-scale manufacturing is required which will push adoption of the tech,” the official said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW