A major safety issue, where the locomotive gets detached from the rest of the coaches due to a coupling failure, remains unattended by Indian Railways despite instructions to rectify it for over three years now, Railways sources said on June 4.
The problem was flagged at a high-level meeting convened by the Chairman, Railway Board/Chief Executive Officer (CRB/CEO), a fortnight ago. Addressing senior officials representing Zonal Railways across the network, the Director-General (Safety), Railway Board, had referred to the detachment of coaches with Dellner coupler from the 12497 Shan-e-Punjab Express in March this year.
An infographic depicting how the Odisha train crash may have happened based on the preliminary probe by Indian Railway Ministry.
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The express train was proceeding to Amritsar when some coaches suddenly got detached from the locomotive. It triggered panic among hundreds of passengers while some railway staff on board the train managed to bring it to a halt. No passenger was injured in the incident.
The detachment of the coupler connecting coaches with the locomotive results in the dangerous situation of the rake being left disconnected and moving on the track. Hence, authorities took up the matter with the Research Designs and Standards Organisation, which is the Railways’ research arm, for rectification of the defect, the sources said.
In the recent meeting, the Director-General (Safety) had expressed concern that the modification suggested by RDSO in the Dellner coupler should have been completed in 2020 but had not progressed sufficiently leading to “train parting”.
‘Ensure uncoupling’
General Managers of all Zonal Railways were instructed to identify the unmodified Dellner couplers and get them rectified on a war footing as the issue pertained to safety of train operations. The modification involved fixing an additional pin in the coupler of each coach to ensure they do not get uncoupled during sudden braking and jerks. The zonal authorities were also directed to erect fences where derailments occurred due to cattle run-over issue, the sources said.
Senior railway officials had deliberated how instances of ‘Signal Passed At Danger’ were getting reported despite large-scale counselling of loco pilots. CRB/CEO had said “right enginemanship” was required to be followed by loco pilots and wrong practices had to be rectified at the earliest.
The slow progress of safety related work like elimination of manned level crossings, provision of fire and smoke detection system in coaches and installation of smoke detection and suppression system in pantry cars had also come up for discussion, the sources said.
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