Weeks before Odisha train tragedy, Railway Board warned all zonal heads against ‘alarming’ incidents

The Railway Board asked zonal heads in April to instruct staff against “unsafe” incidents and to avoid “short-cut methods,” terming the instances “alarming”.

Weeks before the train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district that claimed at least 289 lives, the Railway Board had, in April, asked all zonal heads to instruct their staff to avoid “short-cut methods”, citing five “unsafe” incidents where signalling gears were reconnected without proper checks after maintenance work.

The letter was sent nearly two months before the tragic accident in Balasore on June 2 evening (REUTERS)

Terming the instances “alarming”, the Railway Board asked all general managers (GMs) to review these aspects every week in safety meetings at the divisional and headquarter levels.

“Recently, five incidences on unsafe side involving points have taken place on various Zonal Railways. This is alarming and an issue of serious concern,” the board wrote to all zonal heads in a letter dated April 3.

“The signalling gears were reconnected by S&T [signalling and telecom] staff without proper testing of points after blocks for switch/turnout replacement, wrong wiring during preparatory works, attending signal failures etc., such practices reflect dilution of manual and codal provisions. Same are potential hazards to safety in train operations and need to be stopped,” the letter, accessed by HT, said.

The letter was sent nearly two months before the tragic accident in Balasore on June 2 evening. Three trains — Kolkata-Chennai Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train — were involved in one of the worst railway tragedies in the country that left at least 289 dead and nearly 1,100 injured. Two parallel investigations — one by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) and another by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) — are currently underway in the accident.

In its letter, the board had said that such incidents indicated that despite repeated instructions by it the ground situation was not improving and signalling staff were continuing to adopt “short-cut methods” to clear signals without checking correspondence from site and without proper exchange of disconnection/reconnection memo, with operating staff.

“Joint works with engineering staff, signal maintenance and other repair works requiring disconnection contained in IRSEM (Indian Railway Signal Engineering Manual) should indicate time duration catering provisions for testing signaling gears after completion of engineering works in case of joint activities,” the letter to all GMs read. “The gears should be reconnected only after proper testing to ascertain safe certification of the signaling system.”