Accident or Sabotage?

SINCE 2018, WHEN a train crash killed 59 peo­ple, railway accidents have declined to an aver­age of around four a year, with limited loss of lives. In comparison, the yearly average earlier ranged from six to eight, with higher casualties. In 2012, there were as many as 12 accidents, in­cluding a fire on the Tamil Nadu Express that killed 45 people. It seemed progress in separat­ing freight and passenger lines, use of better technology for traffic management, and more modern engine and train sets were making train travel safer. All that changed in an instant at 6.55PM on the evening of June 2 when the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express, doing 128 kmph, careened into a stationary goods train loaded with iron ore near Bahanaga Bazar station, a small, sleepy halt on the Kharagpur-Puri line. The whiplash from some of the coaches that derailed struck the tailend of the Bengaluru-Howrah Yes­vantpur Superfast Express heading in the opposite direction on a parallel track, making the incident a rare case of three trains being involved in a crash. Death for many of the 275 victims (the count may rise), mostly on board the Coromandel Express, might have been instantaneous, with no warning and no means of escape as the train was travelling at its maximum permissible speed. It was getting towards late evening, and some passengers might have been unpacking home-cooked dinners while others waited for the railway services. It was a time of day when the train staff was busy catering to meals and sundry requests. The bang from the crash, a sound like a massive explosion, pierced the evening haze, conveying the unfolding of a great tragedy.

The railway personnel at Bahanaga immediately realised that something was amiss and visual confirmation of the accident made apparent the scale of the accident that also left close to 1,200 injured. The Coromandel Express took the entire impact of the crash as the goods train loaded with the heavy ore barely budged. The Yesvantpur Express, on the other track at 126 kmph, was just ahead when the Coromandel Express crashed into the goods train and the derailed coaches stuck the last two coaches and guard unit of the Howrah-bound train. These coaches also derailed but the deaths and injuries could have been much high­er if the Yesvantpur Express had been hit amidships and its own derailed coaches stuck another stationary goods train parked nearby. The Coromandel Express comprised LHB coaches, origi­nally developed by Linke-Hofmann-Busch of Germany and now made in India, which are considered safer as they are designed to avoid “telescoping” or piling into one another or turning turtle in collisions. Tested at speeds upwards of 160 kmph, the coaches are equipped with efficient brakes and are made of lighter and stronger aluminium. “The LHB technology is considered very safe, but the nature of the impact was such, with the heavy stationary goods train not being impacted at all, that the Coro­mandel Express suffered the accident. No technology could have helped in such an event where the train took the entire impact,”

Jaya Sinha, Member Operations & Business Development, Railway Board, told the media. Within 20 minutes of the sta­tion master at Bahanaga reporting the crash, two relief trains set off from Kharagpur and near Bhubaneswar. The sight that confronted the relief personnel in the gloom was heartrending as the mass of twisted metal and scattered coaches made it clear that the toll would be high and rescue very daunting.

GIVEN PAST EXPERIENCES in disaster response, Railways and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have con­ducted regular joint training exercises. An NDRF unit in Balasore, posted there due to the area’s vulnerability to cyclones, reached the accident site as did an Army detachment along with the local administration and the Odisa disaster relief personnel. With the help of local residents, who reached the spot in large numbers, the dead and injured were pulled out of the wreckage and all available vehicles, government and private, used to move victims to hospitals. The rescue crews worked through the night before senior officials and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who remained at the spot for more than 36 hours, arrived. It was only around 2PM on June 3 that rescue staff and the local administration confirmed that no more passengers, either dead or alive, remained trapped in the derailed coaches. Soon, the Railways set up an emergency line for relatives with arrange­ments for food and lodging for caregivers. By June 3, railway officials said they had a fair idea of the cause of the accident but were awaiting more details as a Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) inquiry was on. It was, however, clear that the Coroman­del Express had received a green signal to proceed on the main line. In a miraculous escape, the driver of the ill-fated train sur­vived and was initially conscious and able to confirm the green signal. This was also technically established by the Railways. As an official put it, “The signal was green. The track was clear. The signals were set for Coromandel Express to proceed.” The Bahanaga Bazar station, where very few express trains halt, has four tracks. Two are up and down main lines and there are two loop lines where the two goods trains had been parked to allow the Coromandel and Yesvantpur express trains to go through. What clearly happened was that the actual track alignment took Coromandel Express onto the loop line and straight into the goods train loaded with iron ore.

On June 4, Vaishnaw announced that the Railway Board had decided to recommend an investigation by the Cen­tral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Balasore train tragedy. The announcement was surprising as CRS, which is an independent body, was proceeding with its probe by examining all material at the site and gathering technical evidence from railway systems as also the testimony of staff at the Bahanaga Bazar station and other first responders. A CBI investigation raised the possibility of a conspiracy or a deliberate intent to cause the accident. Was the decision intended to examine all aspects of the case and set to rest any speculation? Or did the initial examination of evidence suggest something untow­ard or unaccountable? The track system in the section where the accident happened is electronic or computer-driven. This means that the switching of tracks and signal clearances are computer-managed. The system informs if the track is clear of hindrances and also controls track alignment. In this case, whether the train was to move onto the loop or continue on the main line. At most of India’s 7,000-odd stations, the switching is computer-controlled or done through relays. At very few it is still done mechanically by hand. The question—if the system was green how did the Coromandel Express turn onto the loop line—is the nub of the matter. Was it technical malfunction? This would be rare given the nature of the signalling technology, designed to turn all signals red in the event of a glitch. Could the tracks have been physically re-set? This is not a simple opera­tion and even if this was the case, why was the new alignment not detected by the computer system that continued to show the green signal? Tampering with the computer system to set a loop path even when displaying a green light is another trou­bling possibility. All these disturbing questions are expected to be addressed by CBI which has begun its investigation at Bahanaga. An official said the computer system was “fail-safe”, or that it would simply halt the train in the event of a problem. Yet, there was some kind of problem in the system, leading to likely causes being examined, the official admitted.

THE STATE OF the site where tracks have come off and coach­es hurled in different directions does not make it easy for in­vestigators to determine at this stage whether the point on the tracks was set for a straight pass-through on the main line or for the loop. CRS and now CBI will establish the correct sequence. The digital record does not show an error, making it evident that something seriously went wrong. The indigenously developed “Kavach (shield)” safety system was not available on the route but it may not have been very useful in preventing the accident. The Kavach system would have been effective—had it been in place—if the obstruction had been a few hundred metres ahead. A train travelling at the speed Coromandel Express was doing would need a braking distance of about 600m. In the Balasore ac­cident, the distance to the goods train, once Coromandel Express turned onto the loop line, was barely 100m. “Some kind of signal­ling…I would not call it failure… it was interference. Whether it was manual, or incidental…a wear and tear or maintenance matter, all will come out in the inquiry,” said Sinha. She insisted a proper forensic analysis alone will reveal whether the point was set for a pass-through or the loop line. The probe is pretty much like a murder investigation.

The political blowback of the accident was inevitable, with opposition parties demanding the resignation of the rail­way minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the accident site and spoke to officials, survivors and next of kin. The intent was to convey the seriousness with which the government was responding to the incident and also not to let Vaishnaw take all the flak for the mishap. Some op­position leaders questioned the death toll while others like Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said the CBI probe was an exercise in “headline management” as the CRS inquiry is still ongoing. BJP spokesper­sons responded by saying that CBI was the relevant agency to probe the possibility of sabotage. Interestingly, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda supported Vaishnaw and said seeking the minister’s resignation at this point was not correct. The minister, since he took charge of the portfolio in July 2021, has earned a reputation for being focused on expansion of the railway network and its modernisation. Working on an average from early morning till 9.30PM, the former bureaucrat, who is Modi’s pick for the job, has been at the till. The crash is a major challenge for him as the Railways have been showcasing the introduction of the Vande Bharat trains and other services like the Vistadome coaches, apart from undertaking an ambitious upgrade of hundreds of railway stations. The forward momen­tum of the railways, if it is to be sustained, requires questions from the Balasore crash to be answered. Over the last few years, the Railways have worked to improve safety, reducing the number of manned crossings and carrying out a rollout of IT and computer-based sys­tems even at smaller stations and relatively under-utilised sections.

Dinesh Trivedi, former railways minis­ter who had briefly held the portfolio as a Trinamool Congress nominee, said the evi­dence points to sabotage, saying there were too many unaccounted coincidences. “The inputs and understanding I have about the interlocking system, its functioning, and what happened in the incident, I felt that there was a serious manipulation which led the Coromandel Express on the loop line from the main track. Now with more findings coming up, I am more than 100 per cent sure that this crash was caused by sabotage and not a mere accident,” Trivedi told a TV channel. He said the system had been manipulated from the inside to ensure the Coromandel Express moved onto the loop line. Trivedi immediately attracted the criticism of op­position leaders who accused him of currying favour with the Centre. Yet, the questions remain relevant even as the politics over the accident plays out and reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on gaps in railway infrastruc­ture are quoted. The modernisation of Indian Railways is very much a work in progress. The tragedy at Bahanaga presents new and more difficult challenges.

Accident Or Sabotage?BalasoreCoromandel ExpressIndian Railwaysrescue operationtrain accident