Balasore, Odisha: Union Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw today has denied the claims saying that the Balasore train accident occur because the KAVACH system was not on the route of the incident. Talking to ANI, Vaishnav said the accident has nothing to do with the KAVACH system. The accident accured due to the change in the electronic interlocking.
The railway minister made this statement after West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday questioned why the Center’s Kavach system was not installed in the route where the accident took place. Mamata said that if the anti-collision system was put in place, this incident would not have happened.
The death toll from the incident has risen to 288 and around 400 people are still in hospital.
What is KAVACH system?
KAVACH is an automatic train protection technology which is developed by the Research Design and Standard Organisation(RDSO) in affiliation with the Indian industry.
This system automatically activated the train braking system in case the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restriction. Plus, it prevents the collision between two trains that have a functional KAVACH system.
Mamata Banerjee and several other people have said the accident could have been avoided if Kavach was installed on the route.
Investigation underway
The railway minister said to ANI that the Commissioner of Railway Safety is investigating the matter and let the investigation complete.
Railway minister Vaishnaw said that they have identified the cause of the incident and the people responsible for it. “It happened due to the change in the electronic interlocking”, said the Railway minister. “Right now our focus is on the restoration”, added the railway minister (ANI)
Jaya Varma Sinha, Member of Operation Development, Railway Board did a press conference and said that there has been some issue with the signalling, as per the preliminary report. She further said that they are still waiting for the detailed report on the train accident from the commissioner of Railway Safety.