The report from the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) which investigated the reasons for the Balasore train tragedy discovered “lapses at multiple levels”. It is considered to be India’s worst train accident in the past two decades.
Balasore Train Tragedy
A chief reason is the wires inside the level-crossing location box being wrongly labeled, leading to a mix-up during maintenance work. The report fixed the primary responsibility on the Railway’s signalling department.
The report pointed out the station master’s failure to detect the “abnormal behaviour” displayed by the signalling control system. The location box which connects the wires for signalling, were wrongly lettered and therefore showed wrong functions.
The CRS report further said that on the day the accident happened, anomalies in the system were indicated. “The station master should have brought this abnormality to the notice of the signalling staff working there and should not have taken off the ‘Up Home’ Signal for the train,” the report added.
