Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express train crossed the restored railway track in Odisha’s Balasore on Monday hours after the passenger train services were resumed in the district.
The train services were affected in Balasore after the Odisha triple train accident which took place around 7 pm on June 2 near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar. It involved the Bengaluru-Howrah Express and Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express — and a goods train
Indian Railways on Monday morning resumed running passenger trains on the tracks of the accident-affected route.
The triple train accident in Odisha’s Balasore left 275 dead and more than 1,000 injured.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Vande Bharat Express between Puri and Howrah on May 18 via video conferencing.
Meanwhile, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday evening waved at the crew of a goods train and prayed for a safe journey, as services resumed after 51 hours of a train accident in Balasore.
“Services on both tracks have been restored. Normal train services on both lines have now been restored, 51 hours after the accident,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw.
On Sunday, Vaishnaw said the accident occurred due to a “change in electronic interlocking”.
Electronic interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements between trains through an arrangement of tracks. It is basically a safety measure to prevent signals from being changed in improper sequence. The aim of this system is that no train gets the signal to proceed unless the route is proven safe.
Meanwhile, the probe of the tragic Odisha train accident was recommended to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“The way this accident happened, looking at the conditions, and according to the administrative information. The Railway Board is recommending the probe to the CBI,” Vaishnaw added.