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.
"Our Railway people are the best. Indian Railway is the best and the most efficient. We need to give them what they require. I believe this situation will be corrected. I have no doubt that the Centre and the state government will take the requisite corrective measures," Trivedi said.
On the question of who is to be blamed, the former minister said that this can be ascertained only after the inquiry is completed. "This is not the time to get into a blame game. Let lives be saved first because for politics we have time. The priority now is to save people," he added.
The field trials of Kavach on passenger trains started nearly eight years ago but the implementation is still underway in many sections.
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