BENGALURU: A case of sheer negligence on the part of a few railway employees resulted in the derailment of the Karnataka Express near Channasandra railway station on July 20, a probe has established. Employees responsible for track safety had given clearance for running trains after completing maintenance work without installing a safety structure on the tracks.
Fortunately, none of the over 400 passengers on board the Karnataka Express sustained any injuries. However, the mishap at 5.20 pm threw out of gear the schedules of 32 trains running along the Channasandra-Byappanahalli route for four hours causing immense inconvenience to over 16,000 passengers. As an immediate response, action was taken against three employees for the derailment.
Meanwhile, the South Western Railway Zone on July 22 transferred seven top officials of the Civil Engineering Department in Bengaluru to Hubballi.
However, this order was revoked on Tuesday (July 31) after an inquiry report submitted on Saturday (June 28) ruled out their responsibility in it, revealed top Railway sources.
Divisional Railway Manager of Bengaluru Railway Division R S S Saxena confirmed to TNIE that Senior Section Engineer and Deputy Section Engineer, who work in the pathway department (track maintenance) of the engineering section, have now been placed under suspension, while a Junior Engineer has been chargesheeted.
‘The dreadful negligence’
According to a senior railway official, a Line Block (stoppage of train operations) had been taken up near Channasandra station on July 20 to carry out track maintenance work.Without putting in place the Check Rail afterwards, the staff who carried out the maintenance permitted trains to run on this route but with restricted speed. "This is the rarest of rare occurrences," he stressed.
Chief Public Relations Officer of SWR E Vijaya said, "The inquiry committee found that only site supervisor should have exercised additional care and he has been placed under suspension. Hence, other transfer orders issued have been cancelled."