Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy visited the train accident victims and their family members. The victims are being treated in the government general hospital at Vizianagaram.
The chief minister promised that the government would stand by their families in the hour of crisis. He also told them that the ex-gratia announced by the state government would reach them at the earliest.
The chief minister also conducted an aerial survey of the train accident place. Though he wanted to visit the site personally, he deferred it as his visit might delay the track restoration work. The railway officials have advised him not to visit the site.
Meanwhile, the coordinated efforts of various teams and agencies under the guidance of DRM, senior officials, the Collector, NDRF, SDRF, and others, contributed to the swift completion of restoration works. This involved carefully removing the damaged coaches and isolating tankers in adjacent tracks.
The track was restored within a short span of 19 hours, allowing for the resumption of train services. The first train passed on the down line, goods train, at 14:23hrs and the first train on the up line was the 18463 Bhubaneswar-KSR Bengaluru Prashanti express, which was admitted at 14:36hrs.
Divisional Railway Manager of Waltair Division, Saurabh Prasad said that the locopilot of Visakhapatnam- Rayagada train overshoot the signal and hit the Visakhapatnam- Palasa train which was headed on the same track. There was no Kavach system on these two trains.
Later in the day, the chief minister posted on social media that the accident caused him great pain. He said “The devastating train accident that occurred in Vijayanagaram district last night has caused me great pain.”
A running train collided with another stationed train, both of which were running in the same direction.
This horrifying accident gives rise to certain obvious questions:
1. Why did the breaks system and the alert system not function?
2. Why did the signalling fail?
3. How did the communications system fail?
I sincerely request the Honourable Prime Minister @narendramodi and the Honourable Railway Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw to constitute a high level audit committee to thoroughly examine all these aspects, not just on this line but on all lines across the country, to ensure such devastating accidents do not recur in the future.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost their loved ones.
Our government will continue to ensure that the best possible care is taken of those injured in this accident.
