- Home
- /
- Top Stories
- /
- Odisha Train Accident | PIL in SC...
Odisha Train Accident | PIL in SC Seeks Probe by Expert Committee Headed by Retd Judge, Guidelines for Implementation of Kavach System in Trains
Awstika Das
4 Jun 2023 1:05 PM IST
Nearly two days after a horrific train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district, a public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed at the Supreme Court seeking a high-level probe by an expert panel headed by a retired Supreme Court, into the three train-collision which has reportedly claimed the lives of at least 288 people and injured thousands of passengers. The petition...
Nearly two days after a horrific train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district, a public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed at the Supreme Court seeking a high-level probe by an expert panel headed by a retired Supreme Court, into the three train-collision which has reportedly claimed the lives of at least 288 people and injured thousands of passengers.
The petition has been filed by Advocate Vishal Tiwari appealing for judicial intervention to “make Indian railways safer and protect the lives of hundreds and thousands from tragic train accidents”. Besides urging the top court to issue a writ to the Union of India and other respondents to set up a commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and comprising technical experts to “analyse and review the current risk and safety parameters in the railway system” and to “suggest systematic modifications for strengthening railways safety mechanisms”, the petitioner-advocate has also prayed for the said commission to be directed to conclude its probe and submit its findings to the top court within a period of two months.
Notably, the petitioner has also sought the issuance of guidelines or directions for the implementation of an automatic train protection (ATP) system called ‘Kavach’, which is indigenously developed by Indian Railways to prevent train collisions. Kavach is designed to bring a train to a halt automatically when it detects another train on the same line within a specified distance, but its implementation has been slow. According to reports, this system was not installed in the trains involved in the accident.
At around 7 pm on Friday, June 2, a number of coaches of the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express derailed just ahead of the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district – about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar – after entering a wrong track and crashing into a stationary goods train. Subsequently, the coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express also capsized after it rammed at a high speed into the coaches of the derailed Coromandel Express scattered on the adjacent track. This is one of the deadliest rail disasters in India since Independence, reports suggest.
Case Details
Vishal Tiwari v. Union of India & Anr. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. ____ of 2023
