Report blames staff, faulty signals for train accident
A railway investigation revealed multiple lapses led to the June collision of Kanchanjunga Express and a goods train, killing 10. Urgent safety upgrades are needed.
Multiple operational lapses by railway staff and malfunctioning signals led to the deadly collision between Kanchanjunga Express and a goods train in June that killed 10 people, an investigation has found, calling for urgent steps to deploy train collision prevention systems.
The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) report, following the conclusion of the probe on September 29, blamed station officials at Rangapani railway station, the chief loco inspector of New Jalpaiguri Junction station and traffic inspectors of zonal headquarters for the accident, which was estimated to have caused damages worth ₹2.8 crore to railway assets.
The crash occurred when a goods train rammed into the Agartala-Sealdah Kanchanjunga Express on June 17, killing 10 people including the goods train driver and injuring 43 others. The accident was one of 208 incidents of “Signal Passing at Danger” recorded between April 2019 and March 2024, where trains essentially crossed stop signal lights, which they need to do in case of signal malfunction.
“The accident occurred due to lapses at multiple levels in managing train operations under Automatic Signal failures,” the report stated, pointing to a series of critical errors including wrong documentation, missing safety equipment, and inadequate staff training.
Overall, the CRS report classified the accident under the category of “error in train working”, and its topmost recommendation was to rollout the Kavach automatic train collision prevention system, which requires retrofits on the roughly 15,000 diesel and electric locomotives and devices along the approximately 68,000km network.
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in June said that IR will complete installing Kavach on Delhi- Mumbai and Delhi- Howrah route by March next year. Tenders for another 6,000-km route are expected to be floated by December this year, he said.
The system was approved as a National ATP system in 2020. Further testing and development continued, and in 2021, version 3.2 of the system was certified and adapted, and work began on high density routes Delhi – Mumbai and Delhi – Howrah in the last quarter of 2022.
Railway officials had issued incorrect movement authority documents (T/A 912 instead of T/D 912) during signal failures and failed to issue mandatory caution orders. Additionally, both the goods train’s loco pilot and train manager lacked critical safety equipment like walkie-talkies.
The findings come roughly a year after India’s worst railway accident in three decades in Odisha that killed 288 people, and following a string of other incidents that have raised questions about safety measures across the world’s second-largest rail network.
Internal documents reviewed by HT in June had revealed that the automated signalling system wasn’t working between Ranipatra Railway Station and Chattar Hat Junction since 5:50am on the day of the accident. While clearance was issued to all trains to pass through defunct signals, strict speed restrictions of 15km/hr in clear conditions and 10km/hr during rain were supposed to be followed.
The final CRS report emphasised the “urgent need” to implement the Automatic Train Protection system (Kavach) across the network. “The large number of signalling failures in automatic signalling territory is a cause of concern,” the report noted, recommending exploration of artificial intelligence-based systems to detect red signals and provide early warnings to loco pilots.
Among other key recommendations, the report called for installation of crash-worthiness features in at least the last two coaches of every passenger train, priority implementation of crew voice and video recording systems in locomotives, revising general rules and bringing uniformity in subsidiary rules across zonal railways and ensuring availability of walkie-talkies for all loco drivers and train managers.
The accident could have been worse if not for two parcel compartments attached to the rear of the express train during a scheduled switching operation earlier in the journey. “It was because of these coaches that the passenger coach didn’t get much impact,” Railway Board chair Jaya Varma Sinha had said in June.