NEW DELHI: Concerned over rise in train derailments, Railway Board has pulled up zonal railways for failing to provide complete information of derailments thus delaying evaluation in the matter and they have been directed to ensure complete reporting of facts related to accidents for further investigation.
In directions issued to all 17 zonal railways, board said that on one of the railways, an incident occurred in February this year involving derailment of a loaded goods train and only brief information about derailment was sent and details like track structure, feature of derailment, relevant site details and photograph were not sent even after 24 hours.
It further said that instructions already exist that any unusual accident shall be promptly reported for information of Member Engineering and in case of derailment involving passenger train, the information has to be given telephonically.
“Concerned zonal railway was also supposed to send appreciation report for every accident occurred on the Railway promptly. But in the above case, appreciation report was also not sent even after lapse of 36 hours of occurring of accident,” said the order issued.
According to board, the prime facie cause as rail fracture was received from safety directorate only, but no engineering officer from site bothered to inform about the same.
“This has been viewed very seriously by Member Engineering, Railway Board. It shall be appreciated that unless detailed information is available, it is not possible to evaluate the case, which is essentially required during discussion at Board level,” it said.
The ministry has now warned the zonal railways not to repeat such lapses and ensure that instructions on reporting are fully complied with and all relevant details including photographs of site are furnished promptly.
All zonal railways have also been called to put in place a mechanism for prompt reporting of complete details of accidents and unusual occurrences in their respective areas.
With rise in train accidents in last six months, Railways has come out with a checklist defining roles and duty of safety officers as it was found that important information post-accident needed for investigation was lost due to lack of knowledge by concerned officers.