Kanchanjunga accident: Goods driver was cleared to pass red signals, say sources

In February, three months before the deadly train accident in Odisha that claimed 288 lives, a top Railways official had flagged "serious flaws in the signalling system". The officer also warned that if the signal maintenance system was not monitored, it could lead to “serious accidents”.

In report, Commission of Railway Safety investigators said first collision occurred due to modifications done to signalling circuit to fix frequent issues at nearby rail-road barrier.

A three-way train collision in India has claimed hundreds of lives, leading to questions about rail safety, particularly after it was found that the anti-train collision system, or Kavach, was not installed on the route where the incident occurred. Modi's government had announced the safety system in its 2022 budget and had last year tendered to bring 3,000 km of rail network under the technology. However, the system has only been installed on 1,445 km of routes so far, and the armour will still be missing on over 95% of Indian Railways routes.

The railway minister as well as officials had hinted at signal interference as a possible cause of a horrific crash involving three trains in Odisha's Balasore on 2 June which claimed the lives of 288 people

The recent train collision in India that killed 288 people may have been due to a signalling issue, according to officials from the Railway Board. The incident occurred when a goods train was parked on a loop line where the Coromandel Express had received a green light to enter. Both trains were travelling at less than their permitted speeds when the crash took place.

A passenger of one of the derailed trains recounted his experience during and after the collision and said that he witnessed many people with severed limbs and severe face injuries when he came out of his bogey.

The railways on June 4 said the Coromandel Express was “not over-speeding” and received the green signal to enter a loop line on which a goods train was stationary, virtually clearing its driver of any role behind the accident that killed 288 people in Odisha’s Balasore district.

The railway minister's remarks came hours after he claimed that the "root cause" of the accident and the "criminals" responsible for it have been identified.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that normal train services are likely to be restored by Wednesday. The crash involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train occurred around 7 PM on Friday near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar.

The Leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari accuses Trinamool Congress of being behind the Balasore triple train accident in which at least 275 people were killed.