Odisha train accident: Restoration work underway, ‘root cause’ identified, says Railways Minister | Top points

Here’s what we know so far on the Odisha train accident case

📌 Over 1,000 workers have been involved in restoration work at the accident site at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore since Saturday evening. Heavy machinery, including seven pocketing machines, a 140-tonne railway crane, and four road cranes were deployed for the restoration process.

NDRF personnel were seen packing their belongings, generators and equipment, in what indicated the winding up of the rescue operations.

Relatives of train collision victims react following the train collision in Balasore district in Odisha

See more pics 👇🏽https://t.co/nRwlUyDgAw#OdishaTrainCrash #OdishaTrainTragedy #TrainAccident #TrainTragedy #OdishaTrainMishap pic.twitter.com/2TsOEdV9Fe

— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) June 4, 2023

📌 Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed the restoration work and said the root cause of the accident has been identified and the track will likely be restored by today. “Restoration work is going on at a fast pace,” said Vaishnaw. He added that the rail safety commissioner will be submitting its inquiry report soon.

Vaishnaw said the issue is of point machine and electronic interlocking. The change that was done to electronic interlocking which led to the accident has been identified, Vaishnaw said while denying that the incident had anything to do with the anti-collision system “Kavach”.

Odisha train accident LIVE: Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inspect the accident site in Balasore on Sunday morning (Express)

📌 A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court to order a high-level probe into the train accident case, news agency ANI reported. The PIL seeks guidelines/directions for the implementation of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System called KAVACH Protection System in Indian Railways with immediate effect to ensure public safety.

📌All 21 bogies which derailed after the trains collided were cleared, and fresh tracks were placed. Men were seen laying and linking tracks and some atop a railway inspection car worked on the fresh tracks to repair overhead wires. Damaged bogies were seen laid off the tracks.

📌 Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the family members of those killed and Rs 1 lakh to the injured from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, the CMO said. Patnaik also inspected the site and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families.

📌 Close to 137 survivors of the train accident in Odisha arrived in Chennai on Sunday morning by a special train from Bhadrak.  An official release said that a screening procedure and medical examinations were conducted for 36 passengers and three of them were admitted as in-patients at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

📌 Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal attacked the government over the accident incident and said one minister cannot deal with large ministries such as Railways as well as Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, as was being done by Ashwini Vaishnaw, news agency PTI reported.

📌 The Congress took a jibe at the BJP government over the Odisha train accident and demanded the resignation of Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.