The June 2 crash in the Balasore district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, killed 288 people
\nNEW DELHI
\nAn official probe into India\u2019s rail crash is focusing on suspected manual bypassing of an automated signalling system that guides train movement – an action investigators believe sent a packed express train into a stationary freight train, three Indian Railways sources told Reuters.
\nThe Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) investigators suspect the bypass was done by railway workers to get around signalling hurdles that arose from a malfunctioning barrier used to stop road traffic at a nearby rail-road intersection, two of the three sources said.
\nThe sources did not want to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
\nThe June 2 crash at Bahanaga Bazar station, in the Balasore district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, killed at least 288 people and injured more than 1,000. It was India\u2019s worst rail crash in two decades.
\nIndian and international media have previously reported that a possible malfunction in the automated signalling system may have led to the crash.
\nHowever, details of the frequent malfunctions at the nearby rail-road barrier and its possible connection to a manual bypass of the signalling system are reported by Reuters for the first time.
\nThe CRS, which is India\u2019s rail safety authority, did not respond to a request for comment.
\nThis is what officials said likely happened at the crash site on June 2.
\nErratic behaviour
\nIndian Railways, the fourth largest train network in the world, is a state monopoly run by the Railway Board. The board reports to the Railways Ministry.
\nA spokesman for Indian Railways said \u201crepair works keep happening as per requirements\u201d but tampering with the automated system is not allowed. He declined to elaborate further on the causes of the crash, saying: \u201cthe investigation is on\u201d.
\nAmitabh Sharma, chief information officer at the Railways Ministry, said the cause of the accident was still under investigation. Asked about investigators\u2019 suspicions that the electronic system may have been manually bypassed, Sharma said: \u201cThese are all speculations which we cannot confirm at this juncture.\u201d
\nA spokesman for the federal police\u2019s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has opened a separate probe into possible criminal negligence, did not respond to a request for comment.
\nReuters spoke to five residents of Bahanaga village who said the barrier at the railway crossing had been faulty for nearly three months and had been repaired frequently.
\nWhen there was a fault, the barrier would remain stuck in the closed position and had to be manually opened by railway workers, the residents said.
\nIf the barrier was open, the automated signal system would not allow a train to go past the rail-road crossing, one retired Indian Railways official said. The official did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the crash investigation.
\n\u201cThe electric barrier would sometimes go up and sometimes it wouldn\u2019t,\u201d said Soubhagya Ranjan Sarangi, 25, a pharmacist with a shop close to the railway crossing.
\nNiranjan Sarangi, a 66-year-old retired school teacher who spends many evenings sitting near the crossing with friends, was there at the time of the crash. He said the barrier seemed to be functioning fine at the time.
\n\u201cThe barrier would malfunction sometimes. People from the department would come and fix it,\u201d he said.
\nSystem changed manually
\nOne of the three Indian Railways sources – all of whom had knowledge of the ongoing CRS probe – said initial investigation suggests the automatic electronic signalling system was \u201cchanged manually, for which the software has to be tampered with\u201d.
\n\u201c(Indian) Railways believes the system was tampered with,\u201d said the second source, who has access to briefings on the investigation. \u201cIt is yet to be ascertained whether the intervention was intentional or by mistake or whether due to ongoing work near the signal.\u201d
\nThe third source said the preliminary probe suggested that the signalling system was bypassed because the repair workers were trying to fix the malfunctioning barrier.
\nIndia\u2019s rail network is undergoing a $30 billion transformation with gleaming new trains and modern stations under Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s push to boost infrastructure and connectivity.
\nThe June 2 crash has raised questions about whether safety is getting enough attention. The government has said safety indicators have improved over the years, accident rates have fallen and safety is getting adequate funds.
\nThe crash happened when the Coromandel Express, heading to the southern city of Chennai from the eastern city of Kolkata, wrongly entered a side track of the station at a speed of 128 kph (80 mph), and rammed into a stationary iron ore freight train.
\nThe Coromandel Express jumped off the tracks and toppled after impact. Some of its coaches hit another express train passing on a parallel track in the opposite direction, causing that one to also jump off the tracks and result in a massive wreck.
\nTwo days after the crash, Jaya Varma Sinha, a Railway Board member, told reporters that it appeared that the electronic signalling system, called the \u201cinterlocking system\u201d, had sent the Coromandel Express on the wrong track by giving it a green signal.
\nThe CRS findings now suggest that the system, which Sinha said is supposed to be \u201cfail-safe\u201d, had been compromised by workers trying to find a workaround, the third Indian Railways source said.
\nSinha did not respond to a Reuters request for an update on the investigation.
\nSandeep Mathur, Indian Railways\u2019 principal executive director for signalling, the top official responsible for signalling, did not respond to Reuters requests for information about the supplier of the interlocking system.
\nReuters could not independently establish the identity of the supplier or verify Sinha\u2019s claim that it is fail-safe.
\nManual interference not unusual
\nThe interlocking system coordinates between the signal, track route and track occupancy, and ensures they all work in tandem to take a train safely through a station, Mathur told reporters two days after the crash.
\nHe did not respond to Reuters\u2019 subsequent requests for more details.
\nThe third railways source, as well as a retired railways official and a senior police officer who worked in the railway police in Odisha, told Reuters that railway workers sometimes manually interfere with the system to change the signal so that rail traffic is not slowed or stopped while they do any repair and maintenance work, especially on busy routes.
\nThe retired official and the police officer did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the crash investigation.
\nThe manual workaround is allowed under railway protocols if it is authorised by an empowered senior official and all precautions are in place, said Sudhanshu Mishra, another retired railways official who worked in the safety department.
\nThe Indian Railways spokesman did not directly address the authorisation issue and only said it is not allowed under Indian Railways rules.
\nReuters could not independently determine if the suspected workaround on the evening of the crash was authorised or not.
\nA June 8 Railway Board circular on \u201csafety of track\u201d sent to all general managers of Indian Railways, seen by Reuters, said workers \u201cshould be counseled and guided for not adopting any shortcuts while carrying out the work\u201d.
\nControls of the interlocking system are located inside a small railways building at the Bahanaga Bazar station and access is restricted to authorised railways workers and officials.
\nThe second source said records showed that the Bahanaga system control room had been accessed two times that evening the first time for authorised operational work, while the reason for the second visit is yet to be established.
\nReuters was unable to access those records.
\nAll railway employees at the station, including those involved in the barrier repair work, have been questioned by the railways investigators and will also be questioned by the CBI, the second and the third source said.
\nThey declined to name them as this is an ongoing investigation. Reuters could not independently establish how many workers are under investigation or their identities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The June 2 crash in the Balasore district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, killed 288 people NEW DELHI An official probe into India\u2019s rail crash is focusing on suspected manual bypassing of an automated signalling system that guides train movement – an action investigators believe sent a packed express train into a stationary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-336961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n