An investigation, led by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) looking into the Odisha train accident, has revealed that incorrectly labelled wires inside the level-crossing location box that went undetected for years, ultimately led to the disastrous mix-up during maintenance work.
The CRS report has placed the emphasis on multi-level lapses, while stating that the tragedy could have been averted had previous red flags not been ignored.
The signalling department's station master has been named in the investigation for failing to detect the “abnormal behaviour” of the signalling control system.
Indian media reported that CRS in its report stated the “signalling staff at the site said that while carrying out replacement work of the ‘electric lifting barrier’ at the level crossing on the day of the accident, they were “misled” by “anomalies” like wrong lettering on the terminal, and the circuit that showed the position of the ‘point’ (the motorised part that guides a train from one track to another) had been shifted in the past.”
The report was submitted to the Railway Board last week, which they will now examine. Indian Railways, whose jurisdiction comes under the Railway Ministry, is the world's fourth-largest train network.