Report submitted to Railway Board in Balasore train accident, said- accident could have been avoided

Balasore Train Accident: The train accident in Balasore, Odisha raised many questions. Now the report of the High Level Committee constituted to investigate this has come out, in which it has been found that this accident could have been avoided and many warnings were ignored.

According to the news agency PTI, the high-level committee constituted to investigate the train accident has found that “wrong signalling” was the main reason for the accident. The committee has also pointed out “lapses at multiple levels” in the Signaling and Telecommunications (S&T) department in this matter. Also indicated that the tragedy could have been avoided if the previous warning had been heeded.

What was said in the report?

The independent inquiry report submitted to the Railway Board by the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) stated that despite deficiencies in the signaling work, if the station manager at Bahanga Bazar, the site of the accident, asked the S&T staff to open the switches connecting two parallel tracks, Had they reported ‘repeated unusual behaviour’, they could have taken remedial steps.

The report also states that a ‘wrong step’ was a ‘non-supply of station-specific approved circuit diagram’ for the works to replace the ‘electric lifting barrier’ at level crossing gate 94 at Bahanga Bazar station, which Wrong wiring.”

According to the report, a team of field supervisors made changes to the wiring diagram and failed to replicate it. It has been told in the report that due to wrong wiring and cable fault, on May 16, 2022, a similar incident took place at Bankarnayabaz station of Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railway.

The report states, “Had corrective steps been taken after the incident to address the problem of wrong wiring, the Bahanga market accident would not have happened.” On June 2, 292 people were killed and over 1,000 were injured in the accident near Bahanaga market in Odisha’s Balasore district.

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