Odisha Train Accident

At least 288 people have been killed and over 1000 were injured in a horrific three-train collision in Balasore district of Odisha

Key Points

• The spot of the crash is a little before Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district, which is part of the Kharagpur railway division of South Eastern Railway.
• Three trains were involved — two passenger trains going in opposite directions, and a goods train that was stationary.
• Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has declared one-day state mourning in view of the horrific train crash.
• Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has announced compensation of ₹ 10 lakh for the families of those who have died, ₹ 2 lakh for those seriously injured and ₹ 50,000 for those who sustained minor injuries in the accident.
• PM Modi too expressed his distress over the accident, and announced a compensation of ₹ 2 lakh for the family of the dead and ₹ 50,000 for the injured from the PM’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

Trains

The accident involved three trains:

• Coromandel Express, which had started just hours before from Shalimar railway station in the state of West Bengal and was headed to the southern city of Chennai
• Howrah Superfast Express, which had started from Yesvantpur station in Bengaluru and was due to reach Howrah
• A stationary goods train, which was standing at the Bahanaga Bazar station

What Happened?

• The Coromandel Express on the way to Chennai from Shalimar left Balasore Railway Station at 6.50 pm on Friday (June 2).
• It reached the Bahanaga Bazar Railway level crossing 10 minutes later.
• The train was on Track No. 1 and was supposed to change side to Track No. 2 near the railway gate.
• However, it couldn’t change track due to some technical glitch. As a result, it proceeded further on Track No. 1, hitting a stationary goods train standing on the same line.
• Under the impact of the collision, 10-12 coaches of the Coromandel Express got derailed and fell over Track No. 3.
• At least three coaches of the Coromandel jumped onto the parallel track and hit the tail end of Sir M Visveswaraya Terminal-Howrah Superfast Express (12864) which was crossing the station at the same time.
• The five coaches – three from the Coromandel Express and two from the Bengaluru-Howrah Express, that collided into each other were among the worst hit and saw the maximum casualties.

‘Kavach’ system

Features

Coverage

• The system has been deployed on 1,098 kilometres of railway routes and in 65 locomotives under ongoing projects of the South Central Railway.
• Work is also underway to deploy it on 1,200 kilometers of railway routes of the South Central Railway.
• Meanwhile, the government in 2022 floated a tender to bring a total of 3,000 km of rail network under this technology, covering Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah rail network at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

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