Team News Riveting
Bhubaneswar, July 7
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday took into custody three railway personnel in connection with the June 2 Balasore train accident in which 293 people were killed.
Besides Senior Section Engineer (signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, Section Engineer Mohammed Amir Khan and Technician Pappu Kumar were arrested by the CBI. The three are posted in Balasore district.
This is the first arrests in the case. The officials said they were arrested under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence).
The accident took place near the Bahanaga Bazar station in the Balasore district of Odisha in which 293 people were killed — 287 on the spot or brought dead to hospital while six succumbed to injuries in hospitals.
The accident involved three trains: the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a stationary goods train.
Besides CBI, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has also conducted the investigation and spotted serious lapses at various levels in the signal and telecommunication department.
The commission found that the collision was due to lapses in the signalling-circuit-alteration carried out at the North Signal Goomty of the Bahanga Bazar station for work related to replacement of Electric Lifting Barrier for level crossing at Gate 94 at the station. The circuit shifting work that was done on account of cable fault was carried out without following the standard practice.
The circuit for Electric Lifting Barrier (ELB) of level crossing (LC) 79 of Balasore station, used for the modification of ELB circuit of LC-94 at Bahanaga Bazar railway station, was found “unsuitable”. These lapses resulted in wrong signalling for the passenger train Coromandel Express (Kolkata-Chennai). While the signal indicated green giving the go-ahead for the movement of the train through the main line of the station, the crossover (point) connecting the main line to the loop line (crossover 17A/B) was set to the loop line.
The mismatch resulted in the Coromandel Express traversing on the loop line at a speed of 128 km per hour and colliding with the rear portion of a goods train standing on the loop line. It coaches shattered following the impact and dashed with the Bangalore-Howrah express chugging on another line.
