Twist in Odisha train accident probe; Railways engineer claims Coromandel crash ’not’ due to...

A senior Indian Railway official has disagreed with the certain findings of the five-member inquiry committee which conducted the preliminary probe of the factors that led to the Odisha train accident. The preliminary investigation concluded that a “signaling error” has caused the Odisha train accident.

Senior Section Engineer A.K. Mahanta gave a dissenting note to the report and said that the ‘datalogger’ report concludes that the signal was green for the main line, not the loop line. “Based on observations from the data logger report the point was set for the normal side (main line). It may be reserved after derailment (sic),” he said.

The Indian Railways has maintained that disagreements among the members during the preliminary stage of the investigation are common and something conclusive will only be revealed after a full inquiry by the commissioner of rail safety.

Mahanta disagreed with the joint inspection report which said “Point 17A was found set up for Loop line (in reverse condition) of Bahanaga Bazar Station.”

“I did not agree with (the part of the report) which mention that point No. 17A was found set for the Up Loop line. Based on observations from the data logger report, point 17 was set for the normal side. It may be reverse (sic) after the derailment," the engineer said in the note.

The data logger is a system that monitors the signaling system of the railways. The system also scans, stores, and processes data to generate reports.

Notably, earlier Mahanta agreed with the findings of the preliminary report, but suddenly changed his stance. He also claimed that the pointed of the derailment was before No. 17A.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the case and is currently investigating the Odisha train accident. The central agency was handed over the investigation as the Ministry of Railways suspected tampering with the electronic interlocking system.