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After the railway tragedy that occurred last Friday in eastern India, the authorities believe that the accident was due to a signaling and switching error, which led the first passenger train to a secondary track where a train was stopped. of goods. However, a criminal investigation has been opened, as they believe it could have been the result of sabotage.
First modification:
With RFI’s New Delhi correspondent, Sébastien Farcis
For the government, the electronic pointing system is very reliable and incorporates numerous levels of security that reduce incidents. That is why the switch error on Friday night, which caused one of the worst rail disasters in decades in India, killing nearly 300 people, is incomprehensible.
The multiple accident occurred when the Howrah Superfast Express derailed and collided with the Coromandel Express in the Balasore district of eastern Odisha State.
The railway minister is considering the possibility of human intervention and has suggested two possible leads. The first is that work was underway on the site a few hours before the accident. Thus, one of the hypotheses is that the workers could have inadvertently damaged a cable, for example.
Bug or sabotage?
The second line of investigation is more worrying, since the minister underlines the possibility that the electronic system has been sabotaged directly. However, such an operation would require advanced computer skills and criminal intent, something that is currently unknown.
Therefore, the federal police must investigate these tracks in parallel with the railway safety commission, which must issue its technical report shortly.
In any case, these new hypotheses worry the opposition, which denounces the government’s willingness to find scapegoats instead of acknowledging its responsibilities. Above all, because a similar problem with signage and points had already been reported last February, which nearly caused another serious accident.
According to analysts, the collision shows that the rail system still has a long way to go. For this reason, some qualify the criminal hypothesis. “Purely operational failures are not uncommon in Indian railways,” Subodh Jain, a former senior railway official, told AFP.
In this country, the train is the preferred means of transport and also the cheapest for long-distance travel, both for people and goods.
