Railway Minister smells criminal conspiracy in Odisha triple train accident tragedy

BALASORE: Confirming the worst fears, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw disclosed that the triple train accident, one of the worst-ever in Independent India’s history, near Bahanagar of Balasore district in Odisha on Saturday, happened due to a change in the electronic interlocking system.

Speaking to the media on Sunday at the accident spot, the minister hinted at the criminal angle and said that the commissioner of railway safety had investigated the matter.

“Let the report come. Meanwhile, we have identified the cause of the incident and the people responsible for it. It happened due to a change in the electronic interlocking system. Settings of the point machine were changed. Those behind the criminal activity will be identified soon,” he noted.

The minister, who has been camping at the accident spot and supervising the restoration work, said that all the dead bodies had been removed and the mangled coaches were cleared off the tracks. “Our aim is to complete the restoration work by Wednesday so that the trains can start running on this track again,” he said.

Dismissing speculation by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had said that the accident could have been avoided if the anti-collision technology ‘Kavach’ was in place, he said that the mishap had nothing to do with it. “The accident occurred due to a change in electronic interlocking,” he reiterated.

According to the maintenance handbook of the Indian Railways, the Electronic Interlocking (EI) system is a microprocessor-based interlocking equipment to read the yard and panel inputs; process them in a fail-safe manner as per the selection table and generate required output. This system is the alternative to the conventional Relay Interlocking system (PI & RRI).

Meanwhile, the Odisha government, in a statement, said that so far they had received 120 unidentified bodies in Bhubaneswar. A control room was set up at the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation office and any kin of the deceased could contact on helpline number 1929 for further information.

The Odisha government also uploaded the list of passengers and the names of hospitals they were admitted to on the government websites. Lists and photographs of deceased passengers were also uploaded on the above websites to facilitate identification.

Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakhs each to the families of those from the state killed in the accident. He also announced Rs 1 lakh for those with serious injuries.