Kanchanjunga Express Collision: No Action Against Culprits – The Train Accidents Continue Unabated

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Non-action Railway Minister and Chairman/Railway Board are to be blamed. Due to these laxnesses, there is no fear on senior officers of railways, who are at the helm of affairs for safe train working to avoid any train accident

#Note: This is a #whistleblower account which we confirmed from multiple sources. We welcome counter view of those who are named and assure them of space to give their point of view. Further we request #Minister and #CRB to investigate the claims made by the whistle blower which have been found true by several serving railway officers!

The grievous #accident of Bangaluru-Kamakhya Express train on 30th March, 2025 near #Cuttack in Odisha killing one person and seriously injuring several persons, was a grim reminder of continued such #accidents since last one year. Such accidents are bound to happen as there is no #accountability and #RailwayBoard miserably failed to take action against officials held responsible for such accidents.

Barely nine months back in Northeast Frontier Railway (#NFR) on 17th June, 2024 accident near New #Jalpaiguri in West Bengal due to #collision of #KanchanjungaExpress killed 10 persons and injured large number of passengers. Commissioner of Railway Safety (#CRS), on the final statutory detailed inquiry submitted on 30th September, 2024, concluded that the accident occurred due to “Lapses at multiple levels in managing the train operations under Automatic Signal failures” and the accident was classified under the category of “Error in Train Working”.

Accordingly, for serious lapses, the CRS has held various divisional and headquarters officials of Northeast Frontier Railway responsible for this accident. However, no punitive action was taken against culprit divisional and Northeast Frontier Railway headquarters officers barring few field staff.

The CRS clearly held following officials of Northeast Frontier Railway responsible for causing the accident of 17th June, 2024 for their serious lapses-

  1. Field staff of Northeast Frontier Railway consisting of Station Superintendent, Station Master, Chief Loco Inspector, Loco Pilot and Traffic Inspector/HQs /Maligaon.
  2. Divisional Officers of Katihar Division, Northeast Frontier Railway consisting of Divisional Railway Manager (#DRM), Senior Divisional Operating Manager (#SrDOM), Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer (#SrDEE) and Senior Divisional Signal & Telecom Engineer (#SrDSTE).
  3. Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Head Quarter officers at Guwahati. It consisted General Manager (#GMNFR) being head of the zone to ensure safe train operation, Principal Chief Operating Manager (#PCOM) being head of train operations, Principal Chief Electrical Engineer (#PCEE) being the head of train drivers, Principal Chief Signal & Telecom Engineer (#PCSTE) being head of railway signalling system and Principal Chief Safety Officer (#PCSO) being head to check/inspect #Safety systems.
Whistleblowers’ Sharing

Though more than six months have passed since the final report of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), no punitive action was taken against the culprits individual Divisional Officers of Katihar Division and against Northeast Frontier Railway Head Quarter officers at Guwahati.

  • GM/NFR #ChetanKumarSrivastava, whose overall inefficiency and slackness has caused the accident, is still enjoying good life by frequently using GM’s specials as head of Northeast Frontier Railway.
  • The automatic #signalling was introduced for the first time in #KatiharDivision of #NFRailway in 2023 and the PCOM #VivekSrivastava, who issued the controversial amendment no. 49 of G&SR for automatic signalling territory in November, 2023 that caused the accident, has honorably retired in July, 2024.
  • The Principal Chief Electrical Engineer #SandeepKumar, whose loco pilots were improperly educated about driving in automatic signalling territory that caused accident, firm on his existing seat.
  • The Principal Chief Signal & Telecom Engineer #UdayKumarPawar, who was responsible for proper implementation of automatic signalling and to ensure safe train working in case of failures, is still holding his chair.
  • The Principal Chief Safety Officer #SubhenduChoudhury who was responsible for ensuring safe train working in automatic signalling territory by the way of checks/inspections and inter-departmental co-ordination, mysteriously swept away and died at Parashuram kund in Arunachal Pradesh on 24th   November, 2024 while on official visit.
  • Similarly, there is no any action against Divisional Railway Manager of Katihar Division #SurendraKumar and other branch officers under him viz Senior Divisional Operating Manager, Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer and Senior Divisional Signal & Telecom Engineer, for serious lapses causing the accident.

For the non-action #RailwayMinister and Chairman/Railway Board (#CRB) are to be blamed. Due to these laxnesses, there is no fear on senior officers of railway, who are at the helm of affairs for safe train working to avoid any train accident. In case of #Balsore train accident of June, 2023, Railway Ministry has taken prompt action by at least transferring out some senior railway officers.

Since last one year there have been series of serious #Train-accidents causing loss of many innocent lives, but accidents are now being treated as normal phenomena and hence actions on it are taken as routine matter on the poor field staff only.

There is total lack of #accountability for the train accidents by the Railway Ministry. Because of ‘No action’ against culprit officers, the grievous accidents would continue to occur unabated in Indian Railways.