Less than 24 hours after handing over the probe into the Odisha train accident to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Railways has ordered a week-long countrywide safety drive on signalling systems with special emphasis on the existing “double locking” arrangement of its signalling apparatus at stations. The relay rooms and places from where the signalling apparatus can be controlled are locked with a two-fold locking convention wherein the station master and the signalling staff are both needed to open it. This is practised to ensure checks and balances in handling the crucial signalling apparatus at every critical point, from the point of view of safety and security. “All goomties (cabins) housing signalling equipment with station limits should be checked and ensured being provided double locking arrangements,” the directive from the ministry said Monday. “All relay rooms in stations should be checked and ensured for proper working of double locking arrangement,” it said, adding that during the drive the staff will have to ensure that there is data logging and generation of SMS alerts for opening and closing of doors of relay rooms. The double locking system in vogue ensures that an SMS alert goes out to designated officials whenever the lock of the relay room (from where signalling is operated) is opened or closed. The letter also instructed the staff to ensure that the disconnection and reconnection for signalling equipment is done as per laid down norms and procedures. While the safety drive of various aspects is not new, the specific focus of the drive ordered Monday is being viewed in the backdrop of Friday’s train accident that killed at least 275 passengers. The Railways has officially expressed suspicion that its signalling apparatus may have run into some error, causing the accident. “Whoever has done this, has done such a change — on the point machine, the configuration of the track — based on which everything runs… There has been a change in that configuration, because of which this painful accident has happened,” Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had remarked on Sunday.
