Railways to upgrade station master control panel after Jan Shatabdi near-miss in Agra division

New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) The North Central Railway (NCR) zone has held discussions to upgrade station masters' control panels after an accident involving the Jan Shatabdi Express was averted at Hodal in the Agra rail division on August 26.

"There are discussions and deliberations on how to upgrade such a system so that this type of human error may be avoided in the future," Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the NCR Shashi Kant Tripathi told PTI.

A preliminary probe, conducted by four officials from the division after the incident, had also suggested that the Visual Display Unit (VDU), used by the station master to regulate the interlocking and signalling system, should have a provision to highlight danger indication if the loop line is under maintenance.

The Kota-Hazrat Nizamuddin Jan Shatabdi Express was diverted to the loop line by the Hodal station master and traffic controller to de-board a passenger facing a medical emergency, while the said line was under maintenance with track-welding work.

The loco pilot stopped the train by applying the emergency brake on seeing a gangman running towards the train, waving a red flag.

The Agra rail division suspended the station master and controller for a day and served chargesheets on them for major disciplinary proceedings that include removal from service too.

Some officials from the division have questioned the daylong suspension served to both the staff. "They should have been given adequate rest with proper counselling before restoring them back to the same job," one of them said.

The station master admitted before the probe panel that he forgot that the loop line was under maintenance.

"Hodal is a roadside station from where almost all trains pass through the main line and the loop line is often kept in the blocked position by the station masters. Since the Jan Shatabdi Express had a patient to de-board due to some medical emergency, the station master failed to recollect that he had already given a traffic block for track-repair work," an official associated with the case said.

"When the traffic controller called him to unblock the loop line, it slipped his mind amidst a lot of other work and he turned the signal for the loop line green," he added.

Staff associated with signal and telecom services said the VDU system already has adequate safety measures, where blocking a line appears in red on the panel.

"The introduction of a centralised traffic control system across the railway network is the only solution, where a team of controllers can regulate the signalling system of an entire train route, from the originating point to the terminating station," Alok Chandra Prakash, general secretary, Indian Railway S&T Maintainers Union, said.

The railway ministry introduced the Centralised Traffic Control at the Tundla station in 2018. It was launched on a pilot basis for seven stations initially.

"From Tundla, the 410-km Ghaziabad-Kanpur route, one of the busiest sections of the Indian Railways, was supposed to be regulated for signal and interlocking. But the railways is yet to realise the full potential of this system," another official said.

"The CTC system helps in real-time monitoring and better management of trains. It provides for remote operation of signals from the Centralised Traffic Control office," he added. PTI JP RC