South Eastern Railway General Manager Gets Transferred After CRS Report On Balasore Train Accident

The day after the submission of the Commissioner Railway Safety (CRS) report on Balasore train accident that killed nearly 300 passengers, the Railways has transferred South Eastern Railway General Manager Archana Joshi.

Joshi has been transferred to Rail Wheel Factory Bangalore while Anil Kumar Mishra has been posted as the new SER GM.

South Eastern Circle CRS AM Chowdhary, who was investigating the accident, submitted his report to the Railway Board on Thursday.

Earlier, the Railways has transferred several top officials of the South Eastern Railway under whose jurisdiction the tragedy occurred.

However, the Railways will not make public the CRS probe report on the Balasore triple train accident to ensure that there is no “influence or interference” on the CBI’s ongoing investigation in the case.

While there has been no official confirmation, some sources said the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) informed in its report that the accident occurred due to human error on the part of on-duty officials in the Signalling and Telecom Department as well as the Traffic Department.

Since the officials failed to follow the standard operating procedure in place for train operations, it resulted in the accident, according to the sources.

The Railways will take cognisance of both the reports and make an overall evaluation of the incident and then take whatever steps necessary.

On Friday (30 June), top board officials refused to comment on the report.

Usually such reports are accessible to top officials, mainly to follow through on course corrections recommended by the CRS.

On 2 June, three trains collided in Balasore district, claiming more than 280 lives and injuring over 1,000 people.

Apart from a CRS probe, the CBI is also investigating the tragic incident. Initial probe had suggested a signalling interference, either by negligence or by intent as the probable cause of the accident.