RAILWAY MINISTER ASWINI VAISHNAW ANNOUNCED THAT RAILWAY BOARD SUGGESTED CBI TO INVESTIGATE FOR ORISSA TRIPLE TRAIN ACCIDENT

On Sunday, Union Rail Minister declared that Railway Ministry recommended CBI to probe for the triple train accident at Odisha which caused death of 275 people and injury of about 1100 people.

     He told "Considering the administrative information, Railway Board has been recommending the entire case to the CBI for further investigation."

   The Indian railways on Sunday virtually ruled out driver error and system malfunction, indicating a possible "sabotage" and tampering of the electronic interlocking system behind the triple train accident.

    Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the "root cause" of the accident and the "criminals" responsible for it have been identified. However, the Railway Board has further recommended a probe by the premiere agency, given that the incident is touted as the worst rail disaster in decades.

    As per the preliminary investigation, due to a change made in the electronic interlocking and point machine, the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandal Express entered the up loop line speeding at 128 kmph and rear ended on a goods train carrying iron ore near the Bahanaga Bazaar Railway station at around 18.55 Hrs on Friday.

      Vaishnaw, who has been overseeing rescue and relief operations at the accident site since Saturday morning, said, “Taking into consideration the situation in which this accident took place, the Railway Board has recommended a CBI investigation into the matter.

The accident involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train took place near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, located approximately 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar on Friday at around 7 PM.

Earlier in the day, a top railway official said that the preliminary findings suggest that there has been some issue with the signalling. Only Coromandel Express met with an accident. The train was at a speed of around 128 km/h, she added.

Jaya Varma Sinha, who is the Railway Board’s member of operation and business development, further said that they are still waiting for the detailed report from the commissioner of Railway safety.

Elaborating on the events that led to the horrific train accident, Sinha said, “The goods train did not get derailed. Since the goods train was carrying iron ores, the maximum damage of the impact was on Coromandel Express. This is the reason for a huge number of deaths and injuries."

“The derailed bogies of Coromandel Express came on the down line, and hit the last two bogies of Yesvantpur Express which was crossing at the speed of 126 km/h from down line," she added.

The officer further said that the Railways has decided a priority high-speed section for ‘Kavach’ and the fund has been sanctioned. “This is an indigenous development, so we have a production limit. But the ‘Kavach’ will be rolled out on every section, she said.