The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to apprise it on the steps taken by the Central government for the implementation of anti-collision systems including ‘Kavach’ to prevent railway accidents.
A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice KV Viswanathan asked the Attorney General to inform it about the action being taken or proposed to be taken to ensure the safety of passengers.
The bench asked the petitioner to hand over the petition to the Attorney General within two days and posted the case for hearing after four weeks.
Advocate Vishal Tiwari has approached the top court in a public interest plea seeking a probe into the Balasore – Odisha – triple train accident, by an expert panel headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
The Balasore train accident last year, which claimed over 288 lives, with over 1,000 sustained injuries, involved two passenger trains and a goods train.
The PIL petitioner advocate has sought framing of the guidelines and the issuance of directions for the implementation of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System called KAVACH Protection System in Indian Railways with immediate effect to ensure public safety.
‘Kavach’ controls the speed of the train by automatic application of breaks in case the loco pilot fails to do so.
The prayer in the PIL has sought immediate setting up of an “Expert commission headed by retired judge of the Supreme Court consisting of technical members to analyse and review the current risk and safety parameters in the railway system and to suggest systematic safety modifications for strengthening Railway safety mechanism and submit its report in two months to this court.”
The preliminary report on the tragedy said the three-way accident involved Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, Coromandel Express and a goods train on three separate tracks at Bahanaga Bazar Station in Balasore district.
As many as 17 coaches of these two passenger trains were derailed and severely damaged in the accident.