A CBI investigation has been demanded from Ministry of Railway in three-train accident in Balasore district of Odisha on Friday. The death toll in the accident stands at 270.
The accident took so many lives and is being termed as deadliest accident in recent times.
“Keeping in mind all that happened, the information that the administration has, the Railways board has made a recommendation that the investigation be handed over to the CBI,” said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw while talking to media.
Earlier, he had said that the accident happened due to change in “electronic interlocking” and it will be disclosed in the report. “The setting of the point machine was changed. How and why it was done will be revealed in the probe report… I will just say that the root cause and the people responsible for the criminal act have been identified,” said the Railway Minister.
As per the Railways Ministry, there was a “signalling Intereference”‘, hence, the Coromandel Express crashed into the goods train that was stationed on one of the tracks.
The impact of the accident led the coaches of the Coromandel Express being thrown at the third track that rammed the third train – Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, which was in high speed.
There have been questions over indigenously developed automatic train protection system “Kavach”, which was not available at the route where the accident happened. But an official from railways said that accident of such type could not be avoided by the system.
Meanwhile, the Odisha train accident has even led to a political row as the opposition parties have been criticising the central government over lack of safety measures.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who herself is a former railway railway minister said that train mishap could have been avoided if the trains were equipped with an “anti-collision system”.
