There has been a lax in the maintenance of the electric locomotive engine that may have led to the tragic accident of 15633 Up Bikaner-Guwahati Express in Maynaguri in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district last week that claimed 9 lives, according to a preliminary probe by the Railways.
The report, prepared by the Alipurduar Division of North East Frontier Railway, stated that the routine monthly inspection of the WAP-4 engine (No 22375/GD), which pulled the ill-fated train, was skipped before it was pressed into service. The second point of the report said that the mandatory monthly inspection of the engine (IA) remains pending since January 9 this year.
The Railway report stated that the engine had last undergone an IC inspection on 11 November last year.
The accident, which took place at around 5 pm on January 13, left nearly 40 people seriously injured, while around a dozen bogies of the speeding 24-coach train got derailed.
Initial enquiries revealed that the derailment may have happened on account of one of the traction motors falling off from the speeding engine, thereby necessitating the application of sudden brakes by the loco pilots, which led to the last two assemblies of the engine jumping tracks and the subsequent capsize.
The lacuna, it appears, is in violation of Section 30302 of Chapter 3 of the Indian Railways Rule Book, which spells out the nature of scheduled inspections that have to be carried out on locos before pressing them into service.
The relevant Section specifies that IA inspection of locos must be done every month at Homing or nominated electric loco sheds, and quarterly IC inspections should be carried out at Homing electric loco sheds.
The formal investigation into the accident is being conducted by the commissioner of Railways safety, who is scheduled to submit its report to the ministry within six months.
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