There is a live update on possible signal failure as rescue efforts end

Derailment of the Bhubaneswar-Balasore Railway Station under Prime Minister Suresh Prabhu in September 2017

The crash occurred at Bahanaga Bazar station near Balasore, a city near the coast in northeastern Odisha State, which is known for its ancient temples and history as a 17th-century British seaport

Balasore is several hours by car to the nearest airport, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s capital. The days before the crash were usually the hottest of the year, and daily high temperatures were in the 100s.

The rescue operation was over by Sunday morning. Dozens of trains had been canceled but crews were rushing to restore service after they pushed the derailed train cars off the tracks. The railway minister has said he expects service to resume by Wednesday at the latest.

The Prime Minister has made a priority of improving the infrastructure around the country. In recent years, the railroads, among the most visible projects for ordinary citizens, have received attention for a series of high-tech initiatives. Mr. Modi is planning to build a bullet train corridor between Mumbai and Gujarat on the west coast.

At this time, the most populous country in the world, India, is modernizing the British-era railroad network, a project that has become a priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite government efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India’s railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.

Derailments were once frequent in India, with an average of 475 per year from 1980 to about 2002. The paper presented at the World Congress on Disaster Management says that in the last 10 years, they have become less and less common.

The elimination of thousands of railway crossings was the main reason for the improved safety of trains. The relatively low-level engineering work of building underpasses and posting more signal conductors also drastically reduced crashes.

The train system, and especially train accidents, have long affected the fortunes of India’s politicians. The cabinet position of railway minister has been one of the most sought after posts because it is both high-profile and influential in business and industry. Suresh Prabhu, who is credited with designing New Delhi’s world-class subway system, was pressed into resigning from his post in September 2017, after a series of accidents.

The minister of India’s railway said that those who were affected by the crash would receive compensation.

Derailing Superfast Express trains in Balasore: the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express and a passenger train in the same district

The Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express was on one of the trains. The biggest cities on India’s east coast are connected via the Coromandel Express service. The Superfast Express train runs from a commuter hub in Bangalore to Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal.

More than 2,200 passengers in all were onboard the passenger trains, according to railway officials, and at least 23 cars were derailed in the disaster. The force of the collision left cars so mangled that rescuers used cutting equipment to reach victims.

One of the country’s deadliest rail disasters in decades happened on Friday night in Balasore district when two passenger trains derailed, causing huge injuries and deaths.

The death toll was revised to over 300 after a top state officer put it at over 300. The officer was not authorized to speak to reporters and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, said the preliminary investigations revealed that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track line, but the signal later changed, and the train instead entered an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a freight loaded with iron ore.

The collision flipped Coromandel Express’s coaches onto another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side also to derail, she said.

The passenger trains, carrying 2,296 people, were not overspeeding, she said. The main line of a train is clear if it is parked on an adjacent loop line.

An Indian Railway Official Sayss a Signalling Error Caused a Deadly Train Crash on Sunday: A Case of the Coromandel Express

“The system is 99.9% error free. But 0.1% chances are always there for an error,” Verma said. She said nothing is ruled out, when asked if the crash could be a case of sabotage.

The electronic interlocking system is a safety mechanism designed to prevent conflicting movements between trains. The presence of stationary trains on the track, signals that tell drivers how close they are to a next train, and how fast they can go, are some of the things it monitors.

On Sunday, a few shattered carriages, mangled and overturned, were the only remnants of the tragedy. The railway workers were working to fix the broken tracks as the sun was setting. A crew with excavators was clearing the site of the crash.

Inder Mahato could not remember the exact sequence of events, but he heard a loud bang after the Coromandel Express crashed. Mahato lost consciousness when the impact caused him to lose consciousness.

Moments later when he opened his eyes, he saw through the door that was forced open people writhing in pain, many of them already dead. Others were frantically trying to get out from the twisted wreckage of his rail car.

Desperate relatives were having trouble identifying the dead because of the gruesome nature of the injuries. Few people were checking out hospitals to see whether their relatives were alive.

In the same hospital where Mahato was recovering from his injuries, a woman with an identity card for her husband was roaming outside.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/04/1180028370/an-indian-railway-official-says-a-signaling-error-caused-a-deadly-train-crash

Rescue efforts for the crash victims of a rail car struck by a heavy-tailed spherical levitating engine in Odisha

Fifteen bodies were recovered on Saturday evening and efforts continued overnight with heavy cranes being used to remove an engine that settled on top of a rail car. No bodies were found in the engine and the work was completed on Sunday morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, director-general of fire and emergency services in Odisha.

Modi visited the crash site on Saturday and talked to rescue officials. He also visited a hospital to inquire about the injured, and spoke to some of them.

Modi told reporters he felt the pain of the crash victims. He said the government was going to help them and be very strict with anyone found guilty.