India’s Central Bureau of Investigation to probe railway crash, with focus on track management system

ODISHA, India: India’s Railway Board has recommended that the investigation into Friday’s (Jun 2) train crash, the deadliest in the country in more than two decades, be handed over to the country’s federal investigating agency, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday.

Rescue workers completed operations on Sunday after the crash, with signal failure emerging as the likely cause of an accident that killed at least 275 people.

Nearly 1,200 people were injured when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, went off the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction in the eastern state of Odisha, near the district of Balasore.

“For future enquiry, for future investigation, a recommendation has been made by the Railway Board to hand over this case to the Central Bureau of Investigation,” Vaishnaw told reporters.

Earlier on Sunday, Indian Railways officials said in their first detailed briefing that failure and suspected malfunctioning of the electronic track management system was the main focus of investigations.

The computer-controlled track management system, called the “interlocking system”, directs a train to an empty track at the point where two tracks meet, Sandeep Mathur, principal executive director for signalling, told reporters.

It also coordinates and controls the signal to an oncoming train, indicating whether the train has to move straight or switch to a new track, he said.

“It is supposed to be tamper-proof, error-proof. It is called a fail-safe system, even if it fails the signal will turn red and the train will be stopped,” said Jaya Varma Sinha, a member of the Railway Board that runs the giant state monopoly.

“However, as it is being suspected, there was some kind of a problem in the system.”