Indore Patna Express tragedy: Railways transfers DRM, suspends 5 officials

Watch What Else Is making News

On the day of the accident, Aggarwal had told mediapersons that the probable cause of the mishap did not seem to be a problem with the tracks, including a rail fracture.

The decision came after Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu communicated his willingness for the same to Railway Board Chairman A K Mital early Tuesday, officials said.

Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer (carriage and wagon) Navaid Talib and Divisional Engineer M K Mishra — responsible for rolling stock and tracks respectively— were suspended. Down the ranks, Senior Section Engineer Ambika Prasda Ojha, Section Engineer Iswar Das and Senior Section Engineer Sushil Kumar Gupta were also suspended for dereliction of duty.

“It was very necessary to take action to fix responsibility. Suspension and transfer order was issued pending inquiry that is being conducted by the commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS),” said a senior official.

CRS (Eastern) P K Acharya, who had arrived at the accident site on Monday, has sent blood samples of the two train drivers for alcohol tests. “Blood samples of both the drivers have been sent to a laboratory. I can make further comments once the laboratory sends its reports… It might take about two to three days to complete the inquiry. The report will be submitted to the government in a month,” Acharya said.

The statements of the driver, assistant driver, a police inspector and a few other people have been recorded, he said, adding that this was only the first round of questioning. “Samples of the broken railway track have been brought to Kanpur and are being sent for examination to the Research Designs and Standards Organisation’s laboratory,” said Acharya.

A 12-member team of Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel has also been set up to investigate the derailment. On being told that the GRP had registered FIRs against unknown people and is also investigating the matter, Acharya said he had nothing to do with the GRP’s probe.

Meanwhile, train services resumed on the affected section, where 14 coaches were derailed in the wee hours of November 20, disrupting traffic on the route. Four trains were cancelled and 14 diverted after the accident.

Kanpur IGP Zaki Ahmed said that besides replacing rails, electrical works were completed to ensure train operation on the busy route.

“The route became operational last night after the damaged tracks were removed from the site. A trial run was conducted on the tracks before the resumption of train services,” he said.