Railways’ report on Odisha tragedy highlights ‘human error’, ruling out sabotage

New Delhi: Railway authorities probing the Balasore train tragedy dismissed any sabotaged or technical glitch as the cause of the accident but pointed at human error of workers from signalling department, NDTV reported.

More than 1000 people left injured and 293 people died after three trains ended up in deadly heap last month, raising doubts about India’s train safety.

Multiple agencies began investigating the incident with the Commissioner of Railways Safety (CRS) being the first of them to come up its findings.

India’s the Central Bureau of Investigation is delving into it to rule out any criminal conspiracy behind the accident.

Negligence of ground officials in following changed security procedures which had been introduced three years ago in view of security concerns was highlighted, NDTV reported citing sources.

Officials reportedly said that ministry will take action against those not just in signaling department but others who ‘did not flag the changes to the design’, according to the report.

‘The central diagram had failed to reflect changes made to the circuit, and yearly inspections made later did not flag that too. So it was not the error of one person, but at least up to five that have come to the fore,’ an official was quoted as saying.

Official will not make public the report as CRS did not want it to influence the CBI probe.

Officials hoped the reports by the both agencies will strengthen security systems just as the railways are looking for best safety systems used around the world.

The report citing official said that it will take at least three years to fully switch to latest safety systems including electronic relay systems across the country.

The railways and the Centre are pressing to ensure no compromise on safety, official was cited as saying.