New Delhi/Lucknow: The Railways indicated on Sunday that negligence could be the reason behind the derailment of the Utkal Express, with a senior official saying a probe would ascertain if any maintenance work was being done on the tracks without permission. It was “not clear” what kind of work was going on at the site, said Mohammed Jamshed, the Railway Board’s member (traffic), in New Delhi. “Any work on the tracks has to follow a manual. We have maintenance manuals which lay down the guidelines for work on any kind of railway infrastructure,” he told the media. A probe will ascertain if work was being carried out on the tracks, and whether the rules were followed.
Confusion also prevailed over the number of casualties and injured persons in the Muzaffarnagar train accident on Saturday. The Uttar Pradesh government, after issuing a release on Saturday night putting the number of dead persons at 23, brought down the casualty figures on Sunday to 21. UP’s principal secretary (information) Awanish Awasthi said the number of the injured had shot up to 156. He said that with one more injured person succumbing to injuries at a Meerut hospital, the total number of deaths stood at 21.
In New Delhi, the Railways said the probe, to begin on Monday, will be conducted by commissioner of railway safety Shailesh Kumar Pathak, who will look into “every angle, be it sabotage, technical lapse or manual fault”.
Mr Jamshed, who visited the spot in Khatauli where the accident occurred on Saturday, said he saw maintenance tools on the tracks. “There is some audio clip of some conversation that we will probe. Also, when we did the site inspection, we saw some equipment the Railways use for track repair present there.” he said.
The senior officer also said the railway police had lodged an FIR at Khatauli under sections that included mischief, causing destruction of railway property, causing death by negligence, causing grievous hurt and endangering life and personal safety.
Explaining the maintenance steps the Railways follow, Mr Jamshed wondered if this had been done in this case. “Fixed infrastructure on which the rail network runs like tracks, overhead equipment and signals are regularly maintained as per schedule. Maintenance of tracks is done during operations by blocking them, according to a fixed time and schedule. Written permission needs to be taken for this work,” he said.
