…says causes fetched out, people responsible also identified- says India’s railways minister
Information reaching the media reveals that the main cause of the train crash that killed hundreds of people in India has been detected while the people responsible for it also identified.
This was disclosed by the India’s railways minister on Sunday.
According to Ashwini Vaishnaw, the three-way crash involving two passenger trains and a freight train in eastern Odisha state on Friday had happened “due to a change in electronic interlocking” a reference to the signaling system used by railways and that an investigation would show “who was responsible for that mistake.”
“Let the enquiry report come out. But the cause has been identified and the people responsible for it have been identified,” he told Indian news agency ANI.
However, he declined to give further details, saying it was “not appropriate to say anything at this time.”
“Let the entire thing be investigated by the proper investigating authorities,” he added.
The news came as hopes began to fade that any more survivors of one of India’s worst ever rail disaster will be found, with authorities on Sunday switching their focus from searching for people to clearing the wreckage.
“All 21 coaches which capsized due to derailment of the trains at Bahanaga Bazar Station have been grounded. Now the site is being cleared,” the state’s Railway Department said in a statement issued Sunday by the Press Information Bureau
More than 1,000 workers, seven excavating machines, two accident relief trains and four railway and road cranes have been deployed in the recovery efforts at the crash site in the city of Balasore.
On Sunday, the death toll from the disaster was revised down slightly to 275 down from 288 due to what Odisha state’s Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said was a mistake in counting some bodies twice.
However, the number of injured remains at over a thousand people, and over 100 patients need critical care, according to India’s Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who arrived in the state on Sunday morning.
Expert doctors, specialized equipment, and medication have been flown in from the Indian capital, Mandaviya added.
Meanwhile, the Director General of Fire Services for Odisha, Sudhanshu Sarangi told the Indian news agency ANI on Saturday that hopes of finding any further survivors are receding he expressed, “We will pull the coaches up one by one but we don’t have much hope of finding survivors.”
Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday announced 500,000 rupees ($6,067) in compensation for the next of kin of those who died and 100,000 rupees ($1,213) for people who sustained serious injuries.
Patnaik said “all possible steps have been taken to save the lives of injured passengers in different hospitals,” according to a statement issued by Odisha’s Information and Public Relations Department.
The state authorities said a special train service will run on Sunday to transport survivors and dead bodies out of Odisha.
The train will run to Chennai in southern Tamil Nadu state and stop at all major stations, with a parcel carriage attached to carry bodies of the deceased.
Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, who visited the site, hailed local authorities and rescuers for their work in a Saturday tweet.
It reads, “I commend each and every person belonging to the teams of railways, NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force), local authorities, police, fire service, volunteers and others who are working tirelessly on the ground and strengthening the rescue ops. Proud of their dedication,” he said.
(CNN)