NEW DELHI: Faults in ‘signaling circuit tampering’ led to wrong signals and caused the tragic triple train accident in Odisha Balasore District on June 2 that claimed 295 lives, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Sharing details of the Railway Safety Commissioner’s report for the first time, the Union minister said: “The rear-end collision was due to failures in signaling circuit disturbance carried out at (station) North Signal Goomty in the past, and during the execution of signaling work related to the replacement of the electric lift barrier for level crossing gate no. 94 at the station”.
“These lapses resulted in incorrect signaling for train #12841, where the UP start signal indicated a green aspect for travel movement on the station’s UP Main Line, but the junction connecting the UP Main Line to the UP Loop Line (junction 17A/B) was set on the UP Loop Line; the incorrect signaling resulted in the #12841 train traversing the UP Loop Line and an eventual coli rear sion with the freight train (#N/DDIP) standing there,” Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha.
The minister was responding to questions from Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader John Brittas and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh at the Rajya Sabha.
’41 deaths not yet identified’
the tragic triple train accident on 2 June involved the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express, the Howrah-bound Shalimar Express and a freight train.
Vaishnaw said 295 passengers lost their lives, while 176 suffered serious injuries, 451 suffered simple injuries and 180 received first aid treatment and left.
“In said accident, 41 deceased people have not yet been identified,” Vaishnaw told the Upper House. “The remains of unidentified passengers have been held in a medically prescribed manner at AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar. DNA samples were taken for analysis at CFSL, New Delhi,” he added.
The Departmental Investigation Committee and the Railway Safety Commissioner are the main agencies investigating the causes of the accident.
Vaishnaw also informed the Chamber that, as of 16 July, Rs 29.49 crore had been paid as an enhanced ex gratia of Rs 10 lakhs each to the relatives of each deceased, Rs 2 lakhs each to the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 each to the passengers with simple injuries.
As of July 13, as many as 258 claim cases have been received at various banks from the Court of Railway Claims, of which 51 claims have been settled, it said.
The minister further said that there have been 13 cases of signaling failures on railways in the past five years, but no incidents due to faulty interlocking signal system.
Kavach deployed on 1,465 km of route
The Rajya Sabha was also informed that the automatic train protection system, Kavach, has so far been implemented on 1,465 km of route and 121 locomotives (including multi-unit electric rakes) on the South Central Railway.
Kavach tenders have been awarded for the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors (approximately 3,000 km of route) and work is ongoing on these routes.
“Indian Railways is preparing a detailed project report and a detailed estimate for another 6000 kkm. The amount spent so far on Kavach implementation is Rs 351.91 crore. The cost of provision of Kavach equipment on track including station equipment is about Rs 50 lakh/km and the cost of provision of Kavach equipment in loco is about 70 lakh/lo co rupees,” he said, adding that efforts are underway to develop more vendors to improve capacity and expand the deployment of Ka vach.
Vaishnaw also said that from 2017-18 to 2021-22, an expense of Rs 1.08 lakh crore was incurred on the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh works. RRSK created in 2017-18 for the execution of assessed security works with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years.
(With contributions from agencies)
Sharing details of the Railway Safety Commissioner’s report for the first time, the Union minister said: “The rear-end collision was due to failures in signaling circuit disturbance carried out at (station) North Signal Goomty in the past, and during the execution of signaling work related to the replacement of the electric lift barrier for level crossing gate no. 94 at the station”.
“These lapses resulted in incorrect signaling for train #12841, where the UP start signal indicated a green aspect for travel movement on the station’s UP Main Line, but the junction connecting the UP Main Line to the UP Loop Line (junction 17A/B) was set on the UP Loop Line; the incorrect signaling resulted in the #12841 train traversing the UP Loop Line and an eventual coli rear sion with the freight train (#N/DDIP) standing there,” Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha.
The minister was responding to questions from Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader John Brittas and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh at the Rajya Sabha.
’41 deaths not yet identified’
the tragic triple train accident on 2 June involved the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express, the Howrah-bound Shalimar Express and a freight train.
Vaishnaw said 295 passengers lost their lives, while 176 suffered serious injuries, 451 suffered simple injuries and 180 received first aid treatment and left.
“In said accident, 41 deceased people have not yet been identified,” Vaishnaw told the Upper House. “The remains of unidentified passengers have been held in a medically prescribed manner at AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar. DNA samples were taken for analysis at CFSL, New Delhi,” he added.
The Departmental Investigation Committee and the Railway Safety Commissioner are the main agencies investigating the causes of the accident.
Vaishnaw also informed the Chamber that, as of 16 July, Rs 29.49 crore had been paid as an enhanced ex gratia of Rs 10 lakhs each to the relatives of each deceased, Rs 2 lakhs each to the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 each to the passengers with simple injuries.
As of July 13, as many as 258 claim cases have been received at various banks from the Court of Railway Claims, of which 51 claims have been settled, it said.
The minister further said that there have been 13 cases of signaling failures on railways in the past five years, but no incidents due to faulty interlocking signal system.
Kavach deployed on 1,465 km of route
The Rajya Sabha was also informed that the automatic train protection system, Kavach, has so far been implemented on 1,465 km of route and 121 locomotives (including multi-unit electric rakes) on the South Central Railway.
Kavach tenders have been awarded for the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors (approximately 3,000 km of route) and work is ongoing on these routes.
“Indian Railways is preparing a detailed project report and a detailed estimate for another 6000 kkm. The amount spent so far on Kavach implementation is Rs 351.91 crore. The cost of provision of Kavach equipment on track including station equipment is about Rs 50 lakh/km and the cost of provision of Kavach equipment in loco is about 70 lakh/lo co rupees,” he said, adding that efforts are underway to develop more vendors to improve capacity and expand the deployment of Ka vach.
Vaishnaw also said that from 2017-18 to 2021-22, an expense of Rs 1.08 lakh crore was incurred on the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh works. RRSK created in 2017-18 for the execution of assessed security works with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years.
(With contributions from agencies)