Odisha triple train crash: Indian Railways resume passenger trains services on tracks in Balasore

On Monday, Indian Railways resumed passenger service on the tracks in Bahanaga village in Odisha’s Balasore that were damaged in the triple train accident.

Following a triple train accident in Odisha’s Balasore that killed 275 people and injured over 1,000 more, Indian Railways resumed passenger trains on the accident-affected route on Monday. As services resumed after 51 hours of a train accident in Balasore, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw waved to the crew of a goods train and prayed for a safe journey.

“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 a system of signalling devices that prevents trains from crossing paths on a network of tracks. It is essentially a safety measure to prevent signals from being changed in the wrong order. The goal of this system is to ensure that no train receives a signal to proceed unless the route has been proven safe.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the tragic Odisha train accident, which killed 275 people and injured over 1000, has been turned over 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.