Putting double-lock in all ‘location boxes’, encouraging maintenance staff to not hide faults — however small — and not taking shortcuts. These are some of the systems the Railways will put in place as measures to foolproof its system against accidents.
At present, only relay rooms at stations are secured with a double-lock mechanism, and the signal maintainer and the station master have a key each.
Location boxes are opened with one key, which lies with signal maintainers.
Now, in what could be a sign of the cause for the accidents triggered by Coromandel Express wrongly entering a loop line in full speed despite a green signal and hitting a stationary goods train, the Railways Ministry is firming up plans to secure location boxes with such double-lock arrangement, sources said on Wednesday.
The Indian Express had on Tuesday reported that a signalling technician “looped” the location box at Bahanaga Bazar station to attain a green signal for the oncoming Coromandel Express, bypassing due process.
A “location box”, typically placed along the tracks, holds a junction of connections to the point motor (the movable piece of rail that physically guides a train to its designated track when there are two divergent tracks), the signalling lights, track-occupancy detectors, and virtually every critical piece that makes the ‘interlocking’ work seamlessly.
There are multiple such boxes along the tracks, so one of the issues policymakers are dealing with is whether it is feasible to make the station master, whose main job is to ensure train operations, accountable for so many keys. “In the age of technology, an electronic locking system with two-step authentication is possible and one doesn’t really need two physical keys,” a source in the ministry said.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who returned from Odisha on Tuesday, has held deliberations with key officials to firm up plans to bring in changes that would reinforce the existing security and safety mechanism of critical infrastructure in the Railways.
Even as the CBI starts its probe into the accident that killed 288 people, new information from Odisha suggests signalling at the station had furnished a “disconnection memo” to the station master and also issued “reconnection” — as is the norm. However, the technician concerned allegedly accessed the location box and rigged it, since the work was not officially complete.
“Disconnection memo” means if signalling maintenance work is to be done, the technician has to officially alert the station to disconnect the automatic signalling, called interlocking, which in turn sets in motion a series of alternative safety protocols.
Sources said it has been internally claimed that the maintenance work was complete, which explains the “reconnection” recorded in the system. “The matter is under investigation. The true picture will emerge after that,” a senior ministry official said.
In a virtual meeting held Tuesday with general managers and divisional railway managers, Chairman Railway Board, A K Lahoti, said the staff should be sensitised to not take shortcuts in maintenance. “It was also conveyed that no matter how small the fault, the staff on the ground should not feel the need to hide it from superiors fearing reprimand,” an official who attended the meeting said.
In the instructions issued on Wednesday after the meeting, the Railways ordered a 15-day safety drive for all ranks of officers, including department heads. “Officers must spend sufficient time during inspection and it should be a purposeful inspection,” the directive says. “Staff should be counselled to carry out quality maintenance work…. Officers must analyse systemic issues well.”
