Report says 'not possible' to establish cause without NIA ruling out sabotage
New Delhi: Five years after a train accident in Uttar Pradesh claimed 152 lives, a report of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CSR) has said with the absence of a probe report from the NIA ruling out "sabotage", it is "not possible" to conclude on the cause of the derailment of 19321 DN Indore-Rajendra Nagar Express on November 20, 2016 near Kanpur.
The case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after doubts were raised over a possible "terror angle" in the incident.
"The accident of Train no.19321 DN (Indore-Rajendra Nagar Express) at Km-12907/8 16 between Pokhrayan Malasa Section located on Jhansi-Kanpur single line Section (Electrified) of Jhansi Division of N.C. Railway at 03.02 hours on 20.11.2016 is being investigated by NIA, New Delhi...report of their investigation has not been submitted to the CRS, Eastern Circle, Kolkata so far. Railway Board has also not forwarded any report of investigation by NIA to CRS, Eastern Circle, Kolkata so far. Hence, it is not possible to conclude the cause of the accident...," the report says.
The CRS, which reports to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, has, however, listed the probable causes of the accident.
It says while the NIA is probing the case from the "sabotage angle", no report has so far been submitted either by the premier investigation agency or by the Railway Board regarding the findings of the NIA.
Among the probable causes, the CRS has discussed "rail fracture" -- which it itself has ruled out because "four trains have passed before this train in preceding about one hour and no abnormality/jerk/sound" was reported by any of
those. The report has indicated that one of the most probable reasons for the derailment could be a sudden mechanical failure. It says according to a metallurgical report submitted by the RDSO, Lucknow and the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, the condition of the S-1 coach was very
bad. The S-2 and B-3 coaches also suffered heavy damage, the report says, adding that the S-1 and S-2 coaches took off from the track, "becoming projectile at high speed", and fell on the B-3 coach, resulting in very high casualties in these coaches.
It happened in a matter of seconds at "2:58:01 hours", which indicates that it was a "sudden derailment and capsizing of coaches but not a gradual derailment by wheel climbing", the report says.
It further points out that the S-1 coach, which had "severe corrosion, old breakage and a poor quality of welding", got worked out after the passing of the Pokhrayan station and fell down while on the run when it reached a speed of 106 kmph, and the "head stock embedded in track, causing intense obstruction to the movement of coaches behind S-1".
