Odisha rail minister says technical glitch causes tragic train incident

Vizag: Friday’s tragic train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district, which killed more than 288 people and injured over 1,000, has been attributed to a technical fault, according to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Addressing the media, Minister Vaishnaw confirmed that the root cause of the accident was related to the point machine and the electronic interlocking system.

The electronic interlocking system, designed to prevent inconsistent movement between trains, suffered a malfunction, leading to a fatal incident.
“The accident occurred due to a change during the electronic interlocking, particularly related to the point machine. We will investigate how and who was responsible for the change,” he said.

The collision involved three trains: Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a freight train.
The incident took place near Balasore’s Bahanaga Bazar station, when the passenger trains were carrying around 2500 passengers.

Minister Vishnu asserted that the root cause of the horrific accident and those responsible have been identified, though he refrained from providing further details pending the release of the official report.
He also refuted West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claims that the accident could have been prevented by the anti-collision system “Kavach”.

Rehabilitation efforts are currently underway, with tracks already laid on one of the main lines.
The minister expects full operational capacity to be restored on the affected tracks by Wednesday, with more than 1,000 personnel engaged in the restoration process.

A number of heavy machinery, accident relief trains, railway and road cranes have been deployed to assist in the efforts.
The Ministry of Railways has already provided compensation to the next of kin of around 300 victims of the accident.

Special trains have been arranged from various cities including Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ranchi and Kolkata to facilitate the transport of patients to their homes after treatment.