Rail staff laxity led to Utkal Express mishap: Probe report

NEW DELHI: Failure of the assistant station master (ASM) to stop train movement even after receiving a memo that the track was “unsafe“, as also the pay and way inspector's (PWI) slackness in imposing speed restrictions and displaying of flag before carrying out emergency repairs caused the Utkal Express accident, an official inquiry has concluded.

The inquiry also found that the section controller failed to perform his duty in arranging a traffic `block'. The commissioner of railway safety, who works under the ministry of civil aviation, in his report on the accident that killed 22 people said the operations staff, as well as track maintenance officials, erred in handling the situation. One did not respond to warnings and the other ignored procedures before taking emergency maintenance.

“By the language of the memo, it appears PWI (junior engineer) is begging for a 20-minute block to the ASM for attending to urgent repair work. It is disheartening that zonal railways has not yet formulated a standard proforma for asking for a block,“ noted the inquiry report, a copy of which is with TOI.


The report indicted the railway functioning and said, “There has been a phenomenal increase in freight and passenger traffic, increased axel load and higher speed on track infrastructure. This logically implied higher maintenance input.However, the reverse has happened in terms of time and resources available for maintenance.“

There are regular disputes and arguments between departments over traffic blocks. According to the report, breakage of the `glued joint' at the site was detected by a gangman at 09.11 hours on August 19 and it was repaired by the PWI of Khatauli around 09.46 hours. After this, 14 trains passed the track before the Utkal mishap at 17.46 hours.

“Stationmaster and section controller failed to judge the gravity and seriousness of the situation and did not arrange necessary block despite persistent demand, clear margin available and urgency explained by PWI,“ the report said.

The CRS, which submitted its report in the first week of September, is still awaiting a response from the railway board on its findings. The commissioner also slammed railways for its failure to take videos of the accident site by drone and wide photographs.