Kolkata:Hours after Kanchanjungha Express collided with a goods train in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi raised doubts on whether the locomotive was equipped with Kavach technology and called for a comprehensive inquiry into the accident.
"It is too early to talk about the cause but this needs a deep inquiry and effective corrections. What actually happened we can only guess. So we should wait for the inquiry committee's report to take corrective actions.
It seems a goods train rammed into an express but why did it happen, he asked. "Today in modern times, things run on systems that take care of human failures. If there is any human error then the system takes over. But, why the system did not take over needs to be probed. Did the loco pilot cross the signal red light or whether the signal malfunctioned needs to be inquired," he said.
Apprehending that the Kavach anti-collision system may have been missing, Trivedi said that even if the loco pilot misses the red light signal and fails to stop, the system automatically halts the train. "I am guessing...possibly this engine did not have Kavach. Now, why it did not have the technology needs to be inquired" he said.