Balasore accident: CRS investigation faults traffic ops station staff, signalling

New Delhi: The investigation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) into the June 2 accident involving the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express, the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast, and a goods train that claimed 288 lives in Bahanaga Bazar near Balasore in Odisha is said to have found that the station staff of two departments, Signalling and Operations (Traffic), were held jointly accountable.

According to sources, the CRS report, which was given to the Railway Board on Wednesday, did not address "outside interference" because the CBI is still looking into that aspect, Indian Express reported.

According to officials at the Railway Board, the investigation determined that the signalling maintainer followed the proper procedure by sending a "disconnection memo" to the station master to carry out repairs. A "reconnection memo" indicating that the electronic interlocking signalling system was operational was also provided once the work was finished.

However, sources claimed that the safety routine of verifying the signalling system before permitting a train to pass was not followed. According to the sources, the signalling personnel continued to work even after the reconnection message was sent, and as a result, both the station's operations employees and the signalling maintenance team shared blame for the disaster.

The report, for which the signalling crew and the station master are both responsible in the railway system, is also said to have discovered flaws in the protocols used to access the relay room, which serves as the brain of the electronic interlocking signalling system.

“It is the protocol that whenever maintenance of assets of any nature is carried out, the operations staff is also responsible for the safety of trains along with the engineering staff concerned, be it track-related or signalling related,” a senior Railway Board official said.

In one of the worst railway accidents in recent memory, a halted goods train was struck by the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express when it entered the station's loop route rather than travelling on the approved main line. There were many casualties as a result of the train derailing and pieces of it colliding with the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast, which also derailed.

The Coromandel Express received a green signal for the main line, but the point—the piece of rail equipment that decides a train's direction—remained misdirected to the loop route, resulting in the accident.

Days later, Shujat Hashmi, the Kharagpur Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), and the heads of the signalling, safety, security, and commercial divisions for South Eastern Railway were transferred by the Railway Board.

Archana Joshi, the general manager of South Eastern Railway, was appointed general manager of the Rail Wheel Plant in Bengaluru on Friday. A K Mishra, the additional General Manager of North Eastern Railway, was chosen to be the new GM of South Eastern Railway.

Calls and texts seeking comment from A K Choudhary, South Eastern Zone Commissioner of Railway Safety, went unanswered.

A Railway Board spokesperson said, “The (CRS) report will be examined.”