Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urged the people not to give any ‘colour’ to the incident of the train accident at Bahanaga Bazar as the matter is very ‘sensitive.’ On the present situation of Bahanaga Bazar, Mr Vaishnaw informed that the signalling portion of the station which was attached by the CBI till now has been handed over two days back.
“While other kinds of work have been completed at the station, signalling related tasks are likely to be over in two to four days. After that, Bahanaga Bazar would be like any other station,” informed the minister. Mr Vaishnaw was speaking in response to the reports of a railway staff being missing during his visit to the city today.
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He also took a review meeting of the zonal railways today. Meanwhile, talking about the Kavach system, the minister reiterated that the incident had no connection with the installation of the technology but occurred because the signal at the point machine was set towards the loop line, instead of the main line.
Highlighting that the automatic train protection system (ATP) is not a simple technology and cannot be installed overnight, Mr Vaishnaw informed that now the railways has a capacity of installing 2,000km of the system per year. The railways is targeting to take the capacity to 6000km per year. Mr Vaishnaw said, “Do not go by rumours. It is a very sensitive matter and our biggest objective now is that the truth should come out.
Our clear objective is that we should know the actual facts, the technical root cause and every other aspect of the incident so that all possible steps which need to be taken to prevent the repetition can be done. I also request that please do not give any colour to it and do not make any unnecessary comment on this.
Our primary commitment is towards the passengers and the country and so the matter should not be sensitised anywhere.” Later the minister also inspected the metro corridor between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade including the underwater stretch below the river Hooghly
