Odisha train crash, an act of sabotage?

New Delhi The railways on Sunday virtually ruled out driver error and system malfunction, indicating a possible sabotage and tampering of the electronic interlocking system behind the triple train accident that claimed at least 288 lives in Odisha. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the root cause of the accident and the criminals responsible for it have been identified.

“It happened due to a change made in the electronic interlocking and point machine,” he told reporters at the site of the accident in Balasore district. Here in Delhi, top railway officials explained how the point machine and the interlocking system function. They said the system is error proof and fail safe but did not rule out the possibility of outside intervention. “It is called a fail-safe system, so it means that even if it fails, all the signals will turn red and all train operations will stop. Now, as the minister said there was a problem with the signalling system. It could be that someone has done some digging without seeing the cables. Running of any machine is prone to failures,” Jaya Verma Sinha, Member of Operation and Business Development, Railway Board, said.