JAKARTA - Indian authorities on Monday launched an official investigation into the deadliest train crash in two decades, after initial findings suggested signal failure was the main cause of the crash that killed at least 275 people and injured 1,200 others.
The disaster occurred on Friday last week, when a passenger train rammed into a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks and hit another passenger train traveling in the opposite direction near Balasore District in the eastern state of Odisha.
After efforts to save victims and clean and repair the line, the train returned to that section of the line on Sunday evening.
Trains passed slowly near the derailed and wrecked compartments, while repair work continued on the side of the tracks.
About 120 km (75 miles) further north, at Kharagpur in West Bengal state, railway officials and witnesses gathered to submit evidence at the two-day investigation, led by A.M. Chowdhary, railway safety commissioner for the southeast.
"Everyone involved at the site has been asked to join this investigation. This investigation will take time and we are looking at all possible angles," Chowdhary told reporters, quoted by Reuters June 6.
Meanwhile, the Indian Railways Board has recommended that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) take charge of the investigation into the causes of this disaster.
Chowdhary said he would submit his report to the Railways Board while the CBI investigation could run concurrently.
Railway police also filed a complaint, seen by Reuters, without naming anyone under articles in India's Penal Code dealing with causing "hurt" or "endangering life" through negligence.
Preliminary investigations show the Coromandel Express, bound south towards Chennai from Kolkata, veered off the main line and entered a loop line - the side lane used to park the trains - at 128 km/h (80 mph), and rammed into a freight train. not moving.
The accident caused the engine and the first four or five cars of the Coromandel Express to jump over the tracks, roll over and hit the last two cars of the Yeshwantpur-Howrah train which was traveling in the opposite direction at 126 km/h on the second mainline.
At Bhubaneswar state's largest hospital, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), authorities installed large television screens with images of the dead to help families search the hospital and mortuary to find victims. their friends and relatives.
Pradeep Jena, chief secretary of Odisha, told reporters that so far 170 bodies had been identified, more than half of the total number of victims. While others are still looking for their relatives.
"We have checked all the hospitals, but cannot find any body. We are really tired," said one man, holding up a photo of his missing cousin, Anjarul Hoque.
There has also been an incident of multiple claims for a body in a hospital in Bhubaneswar.
Afuy Shaikh and Dilip Kumar Sabar are both trying to claim the body with the tag number 63. Police officials said a DNA test would be required if identification was inconclusive.
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