Officials say that the CBI investigation will answer all the questions related to the accident. This is a terrible accident in the country in the last two decades. By the way, the necessary investigation of Commissioner Railway Safety will continue in this matter and it is expected that this investigation will be completed in two weeks.
CBI will investigate the train accident in Balasore, Odisha. So far 275 people have died in this accident and around 1000 have been injured. This is a very important step, as those in the know say that only a detailed investigation by a high-level probe agency can tell whether there was any criminal tampering or reconfiguration with the point machine or the electronic interlocking system. Or train track changed due to signaling error.
Officials say that the CBI investigation will answer all the questions related to the accident. This is a terrible accident in the country in the last two decades. By the way, the necessary investigation of Commissioner Railway Safety will continue in this matter and it is expected that this investigation will be completed in two weeks.
On Sunday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav told Doordarshan that the 'root cause' of the accident and those responsible for it have been identified. PM Narendra Modi had said during his visit to the accident site a day ago that whoever is guilty will not be spared and strict action will be taken.
The Railway Minister said that there was a change in the configuration, due to which the accident took place and whoever has done this, in the point machine (the configuration of the track on the basis of which the train operates) will not be spared. Railway experts say that the electronic point machine is a very important tool of railway signalling, which is very important for the locking of point switches, which determines the safety of trains.
He said, “As soon as the route is set and locked, it cannot be changed till the train departs from that route. The signal is turned green on the fixed route and it becomes clear to the driver that this route is fixed for him and he can go ahead. All the minute details of this process are recorded and available for analysis and I am sure the authorities will be checking all the data to see what went wrong. The electronic interlocking system being used by Indian Railways is very robust and designed to the highest standards of safety and it is unlikely that it would fail on its own.
He said that usually train derailment happens due to track failure. He said, “Extreme temperature can cause the track to bend or crack. Welding failures also happen. However, deliberate damage to tracks by anti-social elements is a major challenge before the Indian Railways. Manual inspection of tracks is done twice daily. However, it is possible and necessary to develop a system to monitor the tracks 24/7 and report any abnormality observed in real time.
Professor Nalinaksh S. Vyas, Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur, who has also been the chairman of TMIR (Technology Mission for India Railways), said, “There seems to be a lack of synchronization between the electronic and mechanical systems. According to which the point system works, it has to change the position from main line to loop line or vice versa and along with this the signaling also has to work. ,
"There's a mechanical action, basically changing the point from inclined to straight, and there's an electronic action going from loop to main, with the motor's rotating. It's possible that the signal is shown green, but The point is still tilting or partially tilting..this is a rare situation and the railway minister is trying to understand and investigate the matter as 'why the accident happened'.
Vyas said that initial steps are showing that the investigation is going in the right direction. The Commissioner of Railway Safety of South Eastern Railway is already probing the matter. People with knowledge of the matter said that officials are probing issues such as track management system failure, signal failures and other possible causes such as human error, weather issues, communication failure or otherwise.
Railway Board member Jaya Verma Sinha told the media on Sunday that the people responsible have been identified and there was no flaw in the logic of the signal. Sinha said, it is believed that the track management system is tamper proof, error proof and at the same time it is also a fail-safe system because if it fails then the train would have stopped. However, it is suspected that the signaling system may have been tampered with, he said. When he was asked whether the Railways is apprehensive of any foul play, he said that it cannot be ruled out.
Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi said that the angle of sabotage cannot be ignored in the causes of the accident.
Sensors on tracks, it is important to address track failures
Professor Vyas said that for the future, it is necessary that 40,000 kilometers of railway track should be equipped with sensors so that there is no hindrance in traffic and anti-collision system like Kavach should be installed in all railway lines. It is good that investigation is being done from all angles. There should have been a notice of any kind of freight train standing on the loopline track. It is important that decisions about benchmarking, certification and smoothening the technology on which millions of lives depend are made at the top level and not left to a few individuals or organisations. Such important decisions should be acted upon expeditiously.
Professor Sinha, who has worked with Indian Railways, DRDO and BHEL projects, said that Kavach as an anti collision system is an important system to prevent accidents due to human error on the part of the train driver. . But, this also has its limitations and accidents due to system failures cannot be prevented.
"However, an overlay or say a new system can be developed to use the Kavach platform and prevent accidents due to other scenarios," he added.
Former railway engineer and retired IRSE officer Alok Kumar Verma said that technological improvements are always necessary, but there is no need to focus much on it now. "More fundamental things like proper inspection and maintenance and careful train operation are important," he added.
"All concerned field officers should get adequate traffic blocks and other back up support such as smooth movement of material and manpower to sites for inspection, identification of deficiencies and diagnosis and repairs should be ensured. Station Master, Train Pilot, Guard, Trackman , signalman etc should get adequate rest." He said, inadequate maintenance is the root cause of the above problems, as there are more trains on our trunk routes, like the Balasore route where the accident took place.
He said, "The impact of this problem is on late running of trains, chaos in train operations etc. It is also necessary to have technical skills according to current needs and provision of good equipment."
Professor Sinha said that going forward it is necessary that more and more indigenous research and development should be done on rail safety. The current system tells the driver whether he can go ahead or not. He does not have any information about the condition of the road. IISc has developed a cyber signaling system through one of its startups (L2Mrel), which has also been patented. This system gives realtime information to the driver and also gives information about his surroundings and how the road ahead is. It has been installed at the Jindal Steel Plant at Toranagallu in Bellary, Karnataka. This concept can be further developed and brought into mainline operation.
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