Gonda derailment: Joint probe sparks blame game; Railways calls report premature

Improper fastening of the railway track led to the derailment of Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday (July 18), says the probe report submitted by a five-member team of senior railway officials investigating the accident that left four persons dead.

According to a report by news agency PTI, one member of the panel disagreed with the opinion, while a Railway spokesperson said the findings were premature.

“The fastening of rail track was not proper, due to which fastening was working ineffectively,” says the report, written in Hindi.

Blame on engineering department

The investigation team’s report said the senior section engineer at the Lucknow division, under which the section comes, detected an IMR defect (immediate removal defect) at 1.30 pm and the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express crossed Motiganj station at 2.28 pm.

It said that at 2.30 pm, the station master of Motiganj was given a memorandum to put a speed restriction of 30 kmph for trains to cross the defective spot.

According to the report, the derailment happened at 2.31 pm, when the engine crossed the defective spot.

“When IMR was detected (at 1.30 pm), the site should have been protected till the caution order was served but it was not done, due to which the train derailed. The engineering department is responsible for it,” the joint probe said.

Engineering department official disagrees

A senior railway officer representing the engineering department wrote, “I completely disagree with the joint note,” and cited several reasons, one of them being the measurement of the track, as he alleged improper fastening was done in his absence.

The officer said it was incorrect to conclude that the site was not protected because the IMR spot was completely fine and it was not the reason for the derailment.

The officer alleged that the other members of the joint probe team rejected his request for various technical assessments, such as wheel measurements, buffer height, and coupling of parcel vans.

Engineering department blames loco pilot

The officer concluded that the train derailed because of improper braking by the loco pilot.

The joint probe team provided the details of the accident as recorded in the statement of the train crew.

It said the loco pilot started from Motiganj Station at 2.28 pm at the speed of 25 kmph and while crossing KM no 638/12 (the defective spot) at 80 km speed, he experienced a strong jerk followed by a rattling sound, after which he applied an emergency brake.

The loco pilot told the probe team that when the engine was stopped and when he looked back, he saw the derailment of coaches amid a heap of dust.

Report premature: CPRO

The Chief Public Relations Officer of the North Eastern Railway Zone, under which the accident site comes, told PTI that it would be incorrect to arrive at any conclusion based on the joint probe report.

“The investigation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has already started and the first hearing took place on Friday. It will go into the details of every aspect of the accident with technical specifications and minute details. Many crucial things don’t come in the joint probe, so it is very premature,” the CPRO said.

The derailment of 15904 Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express between Motiganj and Jhilahi railway stations near Gonda in Uttar Pradesh left several injured barring the four deaths. The probe team said that 19 coaches were derailed.

(With agency inputs)