Odisha train tragedy: Wrong signaling led to collision, says report
The inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has found wrong signaling and human errors as reasons for the triple train accident in Odisha's Balasore, which killed at least 293 people last month, reported The Indian Express. It said the collision occurred due to "lapses in the signaling circuit alteration" carried out at the North Signal Goomty (of the station) in the past.
Lapses resulted in wrong signaling: CSR
The CSR report further said the lapses also took place "during the execution of the signaling work related to the replacement of the electric lifting barrier for level crossing gate number 94 at the station." "These lapses resulted in wrong signaling to train no. 12841," the report said, adding that the Coromandel Express traversed on the loop line instead of the main line.
Wires had wrong labeling for years, says report
It also said that the wires inside the level-crossing location box had the wrong labeling for years, which led to a mix-up during maintenance work. In 2015, the wiring diagram that provided instructions for technicians to reconnect wiring after maintenance work was altered on paper. However, these changes were not implemented physically. As a result, the cable terminal rack showed the wrong circuit names.
More lapses noted in report
The CRS also found that in 2018, the location of the circuit responsible for detecting the status of the "point" mechanism—which determines the direction of the train—was also moved within the location box. It was, however, not labeled on the diagram or at the terminal rack. Further, the wiring diagram for Balasore's location box was used for Bahanaga Bazar's, causing the wrong wiring.
Station master named in inquiry report
The report added that when the station master gave the command to reverse the signal from the loop line to the main line, a change that normally takes a few seconds came "abnormally" instantly. The station master should have identified this anomaly and informed the signaling staff. The probe found the signaling and operations (traffic) departments were jointly responsible for the accident.
Similar incident occurred 2 weeks before Balasore accident
The report stated that two weeks before the Balasore accident, a similar incident occurred at Bankra Nayabaz Railway Station, caused by faulty wiring and cable fault. Had timely corrective measures been implemented, the incident at the Bahanaga Bazar Railway Station could have been prevented, it added. Notably, the Coromandel Express collided with a stationary goods train and derailed, crashing into the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express.
Railway official alerted about wrong signaling in April
Per The Indian Express, Railway Board Member (Infrastructure) RN Sunkar informed on April 3 about at least five instances of unsafe train operations since January, including wrong wiring. These occurred in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Navi Mumbai, and Madhya Pradesh. He noted that "shortcut methods" were being used by maintainers to clear signals without checking correspondence from the site, which needed to be stopped.
