Balasore Train Tragedy: CRS Seeks Presence Of Officer At Site For Making Any Signalling Alteration

Fixing responsibility in the Balasore train tragedy, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) of South Eastern Circle A M Chowdhary, has categorically pointed out "lapses at multiple levels".

The CRS reported lapses by field and supervisory staff in the Signalling and Telecommunication wing of the Railways, while holding the department "responsible" for the worst accident in the recent time.

In the report, the CRS has sought presence of an officer at the spot for carrying out any such changes in the signalling circuits. "Any alteration to signalling circuits should be carried out with an approved circuit diagram and in presence of an officer," he said.

The accident at Bahanaga Bazar involving triple-train pile-up claimed 291 lives and injured about 1,000 passengers. The report has recommended a series of steps as course correction measures to eliminate such major mishaps in future.

"A drive should be launched to update the completion of signalling wiring diagrams, other documents and lettering of signalling circuits at site," the commissioner said.

Since signalling fault due to human error was the main reason for the accident, the CRS said, "Standard practices should be followed for carrying out signalling-modification work. Before taking up modification of the existing signalling circuits, functional tests of the existing circuits under alteration should be carried out to ensure that actual circuits are in accordance with the completion drawings."

The report has also recommended for deployment of a separate team for checking and testing of modified signalling circuits and functions before restoration/reconnection of the work.

"A competency certificate should be issued after a rigourous practical training for carrying out signalling modification works. Both the execution and checking and testing of signalling-modification works should be done by staff in possession of this competency certificate," the report stated.

The lengthy report added, "In the event of a condition wherein pick up of both normal and reverse indication relays is detected for a point, all signal movement over that point should be prevented. In case of Electronic Interlocking, this should be registered as fault condition and the system should shut automatically.

"If the status of a point indication relay is normal then the command for operation of the point from reverse to normal should not generate and vice-versa."

It has also sought provision for separate logging of physical relays in the station and data logger and instructed that point detection circuits should be carried in a separate cable for each point/crossover without any intermediate termination.

Highlighting the role of the station master, the report said, "The station master should be made aware of possible faulty conditions of Electronic Interlocking system that could get detected through indication on the panel, these should also be issued and incorporated."

As a long-term measure, the CRS suggested that signalling functions/gears should be directly connected to Electronic Interlocking through open fibre control, eliminating intermediate relays.