Railway Board says anti-train collision system not in place on mishap route

Railway Board says anti-train collision system not in place on mishap route

The Railways’ ‘Kavach’ or anti-train collision system was not in place along the Guwahati-Delhi route, where a goods train collided with the Sealdah Kanchanjunga Express in the rear on Monday, a top official said.

Chairperson of the Railway Board Jaya Varma Sinha said that Kavach, an automatic anti-collision train protection system, is being planned for the route.

“It is not there right now,” she said.

Pointing towards a possible “human error” on part of the loco pilot of the goods train who succumbed to injuries from the accident, Sinha said the collision near New Jalpaiguri may have happened because the goods train disregarded the signal and hit the Kanchanjungha Express, which was on way to Sealdah from Agartala.

According to the chairperson, five people died in the incident. However, some local reports attributed to senior West Bengal Police officials put the toll at 15.

“Five passengers have died. The loco pilot of the goods train and the guard of Kanchanjungha Express have also lost their lives. About 50 passengers have been injured and they have been admitted to the North Bengal Medical College,” Sinha said.

She said a guard’s coach and two parcel vans of Kanchanjungha Express were destroyed and it was because of these three coaches, the passenger coach didn’t get much impact.

“The general compartment has also been impacted. Our priority was to rescue passengers. It has been completed now. Our area officer and his team reached the accident site, which is 10 km from the New Jalpaiguri station,” Sinha said.