This comes after a few media reports reported a Junior Engineer is absconding in the Balasore triple train accident. The tragic incident of a triple train accident on June 2 which involved the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express, the Howrah-bound Shalimar Express and a goods train claimed the lives of 291 people.

CBI has registered a case in the tragic three-train crash in Odisha’s Balasore district on June 2. In the statement, CBI said, “On the request of the Ministry of Railways, consent of the Odisha Government and further orders from DoPT(Govt. of India) relating to the train accident involving Coromandel Express, Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and a Goods train at Bahanaga Bazar in the State of Odisha on June 2, 2023.”

“CBI has taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Balasore GRPS, District Cuttack (Odisha) vide GRPS Case No.64 dated June 3 regarding the said accident,” the statement further said. Meanwhile, Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw is on a three-day visit to Balasore, starting from June 19, 2023, and will meet those who helped during the train tragedy.

CBI has registered a case in the tragic three-train crash in Odisha’s Balasore district on June 2. In the statement, CBI said, “On the request of the Ministry of Railways, consent of the Odisha Government and further orders from DoPT(Govt. of India) relating to the train accident involving Coromandel Express, Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and a Goods train at Bahanaga Bazar in the State of Odisha on June 2, 2023.”

“CBI has taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Balasore GRPS, District Cuttack (Odisha) vide GRPS Case No.64 dated June 3 regarding the said accident,” the statement further said. Meanwhile, Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw is on a three-day visit to Balasore, starting from June 19, 2023, and will meet those who helped during the train tragedy.

Source: ANI

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As per the initial indications, only a small number of passengers of the two passenger trains have opted for the travel accident insurance cover while booking through the IRCTC portal.

Replying to a list of questions sent to SBI General Insurance’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kishore Kumar Poludasu, a company spokesperson told IANS: “As per data available, SBI General has covered 351 passengers.”

According to the SBI General Insurance official, a few claims for injury have been lodged with the company by the passengers of the two trains.

On the other hand, Roopam Asthana, Wholetime Director and CEO of Liberty General Insurance did not respond to the questions sent to him by IANS.

In that tragic accident, 288 passengers were killed and more than 1,000 others injured.

The IRCTC has selected SBI General Insurance and Liberty General Insurance to offer the travel accident insurance cover.

Those who reserveed tickets through IRCTC booking portal can opt for accident insurance for Rs 10 lakhs by paying a paltry premium of Re 0.35 paise.

The policy covers death/disabilities/medical expenses due to a train accident during the travel.

Both the companies declined to answer as to how the number of policies are divided between the two insurers when the tickets are booked.

Similarly the top officials of the two companies remained silent when queried about covering all the passengers which in turn would bring down the premium amount.

An industry official said the two insurers get an equal number of policies while the passengers book their tickets through the IRCTC portal. However, the number of passengers covered under a policy/ticket would differ.

“Even though they would like to have an insurance cover, not many passengers while booking a Tatkal train ticket on the IRCTC portal will be inclined to click on the insurance cover box as their main goal to reserve a ticket as every second counts during that time,” the insurance official said.

Further if all the train passengers are offered the travel insurance cover then the premium amount will further come down from 35 paise.

According to IRCTC’s regulatory filing of investor call transcript, during the last quarter of FY23, a total number of 10.44 crore tickets have been booked and 14.54 crores passengers have been booked on these tickets.

For the entire FY23, IRCTC had earned Rs.802 crore revenue from the internet ticketing service.

A total of 43 crore tickets were booked on IRCTC portal, the company said.

And in the last quarter of FY23, the convenience fee that IRCTC had earned was nearly Rs197 crore.

When the insurance scheme was started in 2016, the premium was 0.92 paise per passenger with Shriram General Insurance Company Ltd, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd, and Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co. Ltd being the insurers.

Source: IANS

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Earlier, Commissioner of Railway Safety Shailesh Kumar Pathak visited the accident site where he went to the control room, signal room and signal point at Bahanaga Bazar railway station. This apart, the Government Railway Police in Balasore has registered a case on June 3 under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Railway Act over the accident.

Reacting to questions on the need for a CBI probe when the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) was already probing the incident, an official indicated that the preliminary inquiry revealed the need for a more thorough investigation. “Lot of information has come during the course of the investigation. Various kinds of information have been made available which required a professional investigative agency,” he said.

The accident in which a speeding Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train on the loop line instead of travelling on the main line indicated issues with the electronic interlocking system which changed the route of the train and led to the collision. “Unless there is deliberate interference in the system, it is impossible that a route set for the main line is switched to the loop line,” he said.

The railways has also launched a safety drive with a slew of directions to all zonal headquarters on the security of station relay rooms and compounds housing signalling equipment, including “double locking arrangements”, after an initial probe showed “signalling interference” as a suspected reason behind the Odisha triple-train accident.

In accordance with the procedure, the CBI has taken over the Balasore GRP case number 64 registered by Odisha Police on June 3, official sources said. The case was registered under various IPC sections like 37 and 38 (related to causing hurt and endangering lives through rash or negligent action), 304A (causing death by negligence) and 34 (common intention), and sections 153 (unlawful and negligent action endangering lives of Railway passengers ), 154 and 175 (endangering lives) of the Railways Act.

Source: PTI

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Normal Traffic By June 7

According to reports, while the track is expected to be repaired by June 5, normal traffic will be completely restored by June 7. Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav took stock of the restoration work at the site. More than one thousand labourers worked overnight at the Balasore site to remove the debris and 7 Poclain Machines, 2 Accident Relief Trains, and 3-4 Railway and Road Cranes, and 5 JCBs were deployed at the site. 

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“Capsized bogies of express trains have been removed…Two bogies of goods train also have been removed…Work of connecting track is going on from one side,” said Aditya Kumar Chaudhary, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), South Eastern Railway.

Indian Railways’ restoration trains carrying new track sleepers, track rails and other machinery have already been stationed at the site. Efforts are being made to normalize train services as soon as possible.

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Balasore Train Accident Reason

According to reports, the 12841 Coromandel Express while passing through the Up main line shifted to a loop line due to a signal issue and collided with a stationary goods train in a loop line at Bahanaga Bazar station. A loop line is a railway track used to divert or give a pass to another train. The impact of the collision was such that 21 coaches of the train were derailed, with three coaches falling on a neighbouring track, through which the 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah Express was passing in the opposite direction. The Bengaluru-Howrah train collided with the three fallen coaches of the Coromandel Express and its rearmost two coaches derailed. According to the preliminary investigation report, a signal was given to Coromandel Express to enter the main line but it was taken off and the train entered the loop line and thus collided into the goods train parked there.

90 Trains Cancelled; 46 Diverted

Meanwhile, around 90 trains have been cancelled and at least 46 were diverted and 11 short-terminated due to the accident. The South Eastern Railway has cancelled trains such as the Chennai-Howrah Mail, the Darbhanga-Kanniyakumari Expres, the Kamakhya-LTT Express and the Patna-Puri Special train. The Southern Railway cancelled trains such as the Mangalore-Santragachi Vivek Superfast Express, Dr MGR Chennai Central-Shalimar Coromandel Express, Dr MGR Chennai Central-Santragachi AC Superfast train, Rangapara North-Erode Superfast Special, the Guwahati-Sri M.Visveswaraya Bengaluru Tri Weekly Superfast Express, and Kamakhya-Sir M.Visveswaraya Bengaluru AC Superfast Express. 

Compensation Announced

The railways announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of those who died, Rs 2 lakh to the grievously injured and Rs 50,000 for passengers with simple injury. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced additional ex-gratia compensation. “An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each deceased in the train mishap in Odisha. The injured would be given Rs 50,000,” Modi tweeted.

Source: Bureau

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‘Lakhs Of Vacancies, Repair Warning Ignored’

“3 lakh posts are vacant in Railways, the posts of top officers that PMO recruits are also vacant, why were they not filled in 9 years? The Railway Board itself has recently admitted that long working hours of loco pilots due to acute shortage of manpower is the main reason for the increasing number of accidents. Then why the posts were not filled? The Principal Chief Operating Manager of South Western Railway Zone urged and warned to repair the signalling system on 8 February 2023, citing a tragedy in Mysore in which two trains were saved from a collision. Why didn’t the Ministry of Railways implement it?” asked Kharge.

The Congress president further said that the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its 323rd report criticized the Indian Railways for the “disregard” shown by the Railway Board towards the recommendations of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS). He claimed that the CRS investigates only 8-10% of accidents. Kharge asked why the Modi government did not strengthen the CRS.

‘Shortfall In Funding, Decline In Renewal Works’

“As per CAG, a 79% funding shortfall was recorded in Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK), while Rs 20,000 Cr was to be made available every year. Why has there been a huge decline in the amount of track renewal works? The train collision avoidance system developed by India’s Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO) in 2011 was renamed by the Modi government as “Kavach” and was demonstrated by the Railway Minister himself in March 2022. Still why only 4% of routes have Kavach till now?” asked Kharge.

Kharge said that victims of the train accident will get justice only if accountability from the top to bottom is fixed. “Mr. Modi, You are busy flagging off the whitewashed trains every day but do not pay any attention to rail safety. Accountability of the posts from top to bottom has to be fixed so that such accidents can be prevented from happening in future,” said Kharge.

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‘Recipe For Disaster: Sibal’

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal also attacked the Modi government and said one minister cannot deal with large ministries like Railways as well as Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, as being done by Ashwini Vaishnaw, the current rail minister. “Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for IT and Electronics, Minister for Railways. No Railway Budget. No Accountability. One minister cannot deal with such large ministries. Bullet Trains. Vande Bharat. Serve the extraordinary, let down the ordinary! Recipe for disaster!” said Sibal.

‘Rail Minister Should Resign’

The Congress party also demanded the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw over the Odisha rail tragedy. The grand old party alleged that PR gimmicks overshadowed the “serious deficiencies, criminal negligence and complete disregard for safety and security” of Indian Railways. “We don’t look for political scores during human tragedy. Madhavrao Scindia, Nitish Kumar, and Lal Bahadur Shastri gave resignations on moral grounds. Railways Minister should take responsibility but Modi and morals travel in opposite directions,” said the Congress party.

Odisha Train Accident Backgroud

The triple train pile-up near Balasore on Friday disrupted passenger and goods traffic between important industrial centres. Many of the patients initially admitted to Balasore and other local hospitals have been released or shifted to bigger cities with multi-speciality hospitals including Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. The accident involving two passenger trains and a goods train in Odisha’s Balasore district killed at least 288 people and injured more than 1100, in one of the worst railway tragedies in the country. The Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train, derailing most of its coaches at around 7 pm Friday. A few passenger wagons of Coromandel whiplashed the last few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express which was passing by at the same time. (With Agency inputs)

Source: Bureau

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Speaking to the media, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the accident happened due to a change in the electronic interlocking system. “The commissioner of railway safety has investigated the matter and let the investigation report come but we have identified the cause of the incident and the people responsible for it… It happened due to a change in electronic interlocking,” Vaishnaw told the media.

Hours later, Congress leader Pawan Khera addressed a press conference where he claimed that the Railway Ministry was informed about the signal interlocking issue in February. “If you go to the Twitter timeline of the Railway Minister, you will see the reality of the Railways. There are 3.12 lakh posts vacant in the Railway Department. An internal report circulated in the Railway Ministry on February 9 stated that there was a defect in the signal interlocking system. If this is not done properly, accidents will keep happening. We want to know what action was taken on this report?” asked Khera.

He also said that according to the CAG report, there have been 1,127 incidents of train derailments between 2017 and 2021. “The budget for repair/renovation of the track is decreasing every year in the Modi government. Not only this… the budget that is there is not being used. We are not against the high-speed train, but by showing 10-15 shining trains, they will make the whole structure hollow, this is not acceptable,” alleged Khera.

The Congress leader also asked whether PM Narendra Modi will take responsibility of the worst train accident of the century. He also said that Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw should resign.

The restoration work of the damaged track is underway at the Balasore site. The Railway minister informed that the down main line was made fit at 12:05 pm today. The fatal accident involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train occurred around 7 pm on Friday near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore.

Source: Bureau

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