Kolkata: The Commissioner of Railway Safety of the South Eastern Circle will hold an enquiry on Monday and Tuesday morning at 9 am in the South Institute of Kharagpur into the Balasore train accident that left 288 dead and over 1000 injured.
According to a press statement from the Indian Railways, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (South Eastern Circle) will hold a statutory enquiry in connection with the derailment of 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandal Express and 12864 SMVT Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express at Bahanaga Bazar station near Balasore. Rail users, local public and other bodies may be present at the given time and place and may depose before the commission, regarding any information related to the accident, the statement added.
The three-way accident involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Coromandel Express and goods train on three separate tracks at Bahanaga Bazar Station led to 17 coaches being derailed and severely damaged leading to the loss of at least 275 lives. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said that the train accident occured due to a change in ‘electronic interlocking’, a signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements between trains through an arrangement of tracks.
Electronic interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements between trains through an arrangement of tracks. It is basically a safety measure to prevent signals from being changed in improper sequence. The aim of this system is that no train gets the signal to proceed unless the route is proven safe.
Later in the day, Jaya Varma Sinha, Member of Operation and Business Development of the Railway Board said that according to preliminary findings, there was some issue with signalling which may have led to the accident. ‘We are still waiting for the detailed report from the Commissioner of Railway Safety. Only Coromandal Express met with an accident. The train was at a speed of around 128 km/h’, she said.
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