Odisha train accident: Indian Railways restores operations on tracks in Balasore

Indian Railways on Monday resumed running passenger trains on the tracks of the accident-affected route.

Balasore: Indian Railways on Monday has started running passenger trains on the tracks in Bahanaga village in Odisha’s Balasore which were affected due to the triple train accident.

The triple train accident in Odisha‘s Balasore which left 275 dead and more than 1,000 injured, Indian Railways on Monday resumed running passenger trains on the tracks of the accident-affected route.

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Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday waved at the crew of a goods train and prayed for a safe journey, as services resumed after 51 hours of a train accident in Balasore.

“Services on both tracks have been restored. Normal train services on both lines have now been restored, 51 hours after the accident,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw.

On Sunday, Vaishnaw said the accident occurred due to a “change in electronic interlocking”.

Electronic interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements between trains through an arrangement of tracks. It is basically a safety measure to prevent signals from being changed in improper sequence. The aim of this system is that no train gets the signal to proceed unless the route is proven safe.

Meanwhile, the probe of the tragic Odisha train accident that claimed the lives of 275 people and left over 1000 injured, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“The way this accident happened, looking at the conditions, and according to the administrative information. The Railway Board is recommending the probe to the CBI,” Vaishnaw added.

The incident took place around 7 pm on June 2 near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar. It involved the Bengaluru-Howrah Express and Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express — and a goods train.