The official investigation into India’s deadliest rail crash in 20 years began as trains crossed the disaster site in the eastern state of Odisha.
India’s official investigation into the deadliest rail crash in 20 years has begun after preliminary findings point to signal failure as a possible cause of the collision that killed at least 275 people and injured nearly 1,200. .
Disaster struck on Friday, when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction near Balasore district, in the eastern state of Odisha. .
After relentless efforts to rescue survivors and clear and repair the track, passenger and freight trains continued to run on that section of the line on Sunday night.
Trains pass through the debris of the wrecked carriages from the crash on Friday night near Balasore.
Green netting was erected on either side of the tracks, protecting the broken-down carriages, which were pushed on the embankment, from the view of traveling passengers.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was seen with her hands folded in prayer as she saw the first train cross the disaster site on Sunday.
The railway department said the first train, a goods train full of coal, started 51 hours after the crash.
It was not immediately clear if all the tracks were fully repaired, with trains on Monday only using the lines on one side.
“Trains should control their speed and proceed slowly at a certain distance,” said a railway official.
Officials initially reported the death toll at 288, but the Odisha government revised it up to 275 on Sunday after some bodies were “erroneously counted twice”.
At least 382 injured people are still being treated in hospital, authorities said on Sunday. Many fear the death toll could rise further with medical centers overwhelmed by the number of casualties, many in critical condition.
There was confusion about the exact sequence of events on Friday, but reports said railway officials said a signaling error sent the Coromandel Express running south from Kolkata to Chennai on a side path.
It hit a freight train at 128kmph (80mph) and the wreck derailed the Yesvantpur-Howrah train heading in the opposite direction from India’s tech hub Bengaluru to Kolkata.
Vaishnaw said on Sunday that the crash was caused by “a change that occurred during the electronic interlocking”, which refers to a technical term for a complex signal system designed to stop collisions in trains by arranging their movement on the tracks.
“Whoever did this, and how it happened, will be known after a proper investigation,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site and met the injured passengers at the hospital on Saturday. He said “no one responsible” would be spared.
About 120 kilometers (75 miles) to the north, in Kharagpur, in the neighboring state of West Bengal, railway officials and witnesses gathered to submit evidence at a two-day inquiry, chaired by AM Chowdhary, railway safety commissioner for south-eastern circle.
“Many officials and witnesses have joined the inquiry. The inquiry is ongoing,” a senior railway official told Reuters news agency, as officials reviewed documents submitted for examination.
The Railway Board of India, the top executive body, has recommended that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) take over the investigation into the cause of the disaster.
“We have to move towards normalization… Our responsibility is not over,” Vaishnaw told reporters.
