Officials blame engineering fault for Buxar train derailment; track restored

The railway officials on duty when the North East super-fast train derailed in Bihar’s Buxar district on Wednesday night have said that the accident may have been caused because of an engineering fault, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

All 23 coaches of the superfast train from Delhi’s Anand Vihar Terminus to Assam’s Kamakhya had derailed near Raghunathpur station, killing four people and leaving 71 injured.

A 15-page joint note signed by the on-duty station master, points man, gateman, loco pilot, assistant loco pilot and track man has said that the accident may have been caused by a fault of the engineering department, the people said.

The commissioner of railway safety (CRS), who is probing the accident, has recorded their statement, besides the injured passengers and locals. The issue was also discussed among the East Central Railway (ECR) officials at the accident site on Friday morning, they added.

In their statement, gateman Nand Kishore Singh said that he saw sparking and heard heavy noise when the train was passing. Loco pilot Bipin Kumar Sinha said that when the train was crossing Raghunathpur home signal and a railway crossing he felt heavy vibration, jerk in the back portion of the locomotive and found pressure drop in the break pipe.

“If the loco pilot found pressure dropped during the running train, there is a possibility of one of the wheels getting down from the track leading to automatic break or a possibility of leakage in the brake pipe,” said a senior official of the Indian Railway, who is part of the investigation team.

He also said that 30 minutes before the incident, 15232 Down Durg-Barauni train, which was running on a changed route, passed on the same track and its loco pilot also felt vibration. “In such a case, he has to inform the station manager about such vibrations and only an inquiry will reveal whether such information was shared with the station manager or not,” said a railway official.

Earlier on Thursday, two senior railways officials, on condition of anonymity, had said that the cause of the derailment, according to a preliminary investigation, seemed to be a fault in the tracks, specifically a rail fracture, or a gap in the tracks.

Meanwhile, a trial run was conducted on the affected railway tracks on Fiday, over 45 hours after the tragic railway accident. Several trains resumed operations on up line in the morning while the down line was restored for operation in the evening.

“Within 48 hours of the tragedy, train movement on up and down line was normalised. Train movement will begin from now,” said chief public relations officer (CPRO) of East Central Railway, Birendra Kumar, adding that most of the debris has been cleared off the track.