Odisha Train Accident: Not A Single Penny Spent On Anti-Collision System Despite Rs 468.9 Cr Allocation

Despite budgetary allocations, the South Eastern Railway (SER) failed to spend a single penny on the anti-collision system which could have possibly prevented the recent accident in Balasore where 278 people lost lives, India Today reported.

The news channel has got access to the account book of the South Eastern Railway where it is revealed that it has not spent a single rupee on the train collision system in the last three years although Rs 468.9 crore has been sanctioned.

Following the deadly accident, the Indian Railways said that Kavach, an anti-train collision system, was not available on the route in Odisha's Balasore. The technology, indigenously developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation along with three Indian firms, sounds an alert when a loco pilot jumps a signal, a major cause of train collisions.

Despite a sanctioned capital cost of approximately Rs 312 crore for the implementation of a long-term evolution system on a low-density railway network in relation to the train collision avoidance system covering 1,563 rkm, no expenditures were incurred until March 2022 in another sector of the same zone. Furthermore, no outlay was allocated for the year 2022-23, the report added.

Also, Rs 208 crore was sanctioned to SER for automatic block signalling, centralised traffic control and train collision avoidance system on balance sections of high-density network routes, according to the government's budget documents. However, the funds remained unused to date.

On the other hand, the Railway Board has said that the preliminary findings suggest that there has been some issue with the signalling.

Only Coromandel Express met with an accident. The train was at a speed of around 128 km/h, it added.

"According to the preliminary findings, there has been some issue with the signalling. We are still waiting for the detailed report from the Commissioner of Railway Safety. Only Coromandal Express met with an accident. The train was at a speed of around 128 km/h," the top railway official Jaya Varma Sinha said.

She said the goods train did not get derailed since it was carrying iron ores and had maximum damage on Coromandel Express.

"The goods train did not get derailed. Since the goods train was carrying iron ores, the maximum damage of the impact was on Coromandel Express. This is the reason for a huge number of deaths and injuries," Sinha was quoted saying by ANI.

"Railways first did relief and rescue work after the accident and after that repair work is being done. There are four lines at Bahanaga station. It has two main lines. There was a goods train on the loop line. The driver had received the green signal at the station. Both vehicles were running at full speed," she said.

Meanwhile, the officials from the CBI, which is going to investigate the train tragedy, arrived at the crash site on Tuesday.