The Sunday-evening collision of two passenger trains near Vizianagaram of Andhra Pradesh could have been prevented had the indigenous ‘Kavach’ or Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) been installed in both the trains as it is meant to prevent precisely such incidents (when two trains enter the same line), senior railway officials said on Monday.
But, ‘Kavach’ is currently under implementation in South Central Railway (SCR) only to an extent of 1,200 km and the equipment has been installed in only 140 locomotives and at 110 stations in the zone so far. It is yet to be taken up in other zones though tender process is on, they said.
Five months after Balasore tragedy
The latest incident has sent shockwaves across the country since it comes about five months after the collision on the same busy Howrah-Chennai line in Odisha’s Balasore and under the jurisdiction of the East Coast Railway.
If the Balasore tragedy, which took about 295 lives and left many more injured, was identified as a signal failure due to a patchy boom barrier work (leading to the Coromandel Express moving into a loop line and crashing onto a stationary freight train), here it could be a combination of both signal and human failure, said railway officials.
The section here recently got a third line and an automatic signalling system, but two automatic signals malfunctioned or showed neither red or green between Kantakapalli and Alamanda stations. But, even if the signal is ‘blank’, under the fail safe procedure, the loco pilots should observe caution and halt or proceed slowly, said senior officials, not willing to be identified.
The first train, Visakhapatnam-Palasa Passenger, on noticing the ‘no signal’ halted, moved slowly and halted again on noticing the second ‘no signal’ according to the officials here. The pantograph or the apparatus on the engine roof to collect power from overhead electric traction could have also got entangled in the cable in the melee, they said.
The second train, Visakhapatnam-Rayagada Passenger, too, should have followed the same procedure and halted or considerably slowed. Inexplicably, however, the train moved on. Though the train was not moving in high speed, the impact was such that it killed both its loco pilot and the assistant in the derailment.
Detonators to alert loco-pilots
The guard of the first train, too, died in the collision, further confounding railway officials. “The guard should ideally have been outside, ready with a hand signal to warn any incoming train whenever a train halts mid section. Biscuit shaped detonators are given to both the guard and the loco-pilots to be placed on tracks a few meters ahead; these will burst on pressure to alert the loco-pilots of any incoming train to stop,” explained the senior officials.
Another aspect is that the station master of Kantakapalli is said to have informed the loco-pilots of both the trains through VHF sets (wherein two-way communication is possible) about the signal failure. Yet, the second loco-pilot team, for unfathomable reasons as of now, seemed to have proceeded ahead, leading to the tragedy.
