Railways on Saturday announced that it will conduct an internal probe on the derailment of three coaches, one parcel coach and two passenger coaches, of 22850 Secunderabad-Shalimar Superfast Express at Nalpur in Kolkata.
An official said that the internal probe will be conducted by a five-member committee of senior railways officials which will be constituted for the investigation.
“Appropriate action will be taken if there will be any human negligence or error. The five-member committee will submit the report within ten days. We will try to ensure that such things do not happen again in future,” said a senior official of South Eastern Railways.
Sources said that initially, it appeared that change in the line of the train engines at extremely short intervals, first from the down-line to the middle line and then almost instantly back to the down-line, resulted in a tremendous jerk that caused the derailment.
However, since the speed of the train was extremely slow while the derailment happened, any casualty or injury could be avoided. However, the downline was impacted badly due to the derailment of the three coaches.
The metal fishplates bolted to the sides of the ends of two rails or beams to join them got separated and scattered all over the place. Even the concrete sleeper there fixing and supporting steel rail also developed cracks in places.
The derailment impacted the normal railway services through that line for a prolonged period. The railway authorities arranged for buses so that the passengers travelling by that train could reach their destination.
An accident relief train from Santragachi station and a medical relief train from Kharagpur station were rushed to the spot for assistance while an investigation is also underway.
Last year, as many as 296 persons were killed after Coromandel Express collided with a stationary goods train at Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha.
In June 2024, a total of 11 persons were killed after the Sealdah-Agartala Kanchanjunga Express collided with a goods train from behind near Rangapani railway station in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. A signaling error was identified as the reason for the accident in both cases.