Investigation initiated into security breach

A day after the train accident in Kavaraipettai, 40 km from Chennai, Southern Circle Railway Safety Commissioner (CRS) AM Chowdhary arrived at the accident site to initiate a thorough investigation.

According to officials, the Mysuru-Darbhanga Bagmati Express received the green signal to proceed towards Gudur on the main route around 8:30 pm on Friday.

However, the train mistakenly entered the ring line at Kavaraipettai station where a freight train was parked.

Investigators are trying to figure out why the train went onto the ring line even though the signal said it should stay on the main line. They are also examining whether human error played a role.

The CRS examined key safety areas such as tracks, trains, signals and control panels.

Chowdhary spoke to over 30 railway workers, including the locomotive drivers of the Bagmati Express, the locomotive driver and conductor of a nearby train, as well as station masters and engineers from the area.

The Korukkupet railway police have launched an investigation after Kavaraipettai station master M. Muni Prasand Babu lodged a complaint.

Other groups like the NIA, RPF and Tamil Nadu State Police are also investigating the accident. They believe some railroad signals or switches may have been tampered with.

There are concerns as some bolts were found loose and some nuts missing at the accident site. This raises questions about possible outside interference. Recently there was also a case of tampering at Ponneri railway station, which the police are investigating.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) is investigating all possible reasons for the accident and will announce its initial findings in about 10 to 15 days.

R. Baskaran, a retired senior signaling and telecommunications engineer of the Southern Railway, said data from the data logger at Kavaraipettai station shows that the collision was unlikely to be due to a signal failure.

He explained that the signal for the Bagmati Express to go straight on the main line was set, indicating that a derailment or other problem had caused the train to continue on the ring line instead.

Another retired official noted that the data logger shows that the Bagmati Express occupied both the main and ring lines at the same time, a rare occurrence known as “two-roading” that may have been due to a track fault.

In a show of community spirit, residents of Kavaraipettai stepped in to help stranded passengers and transport them on bikes from the railway station to the highway.