Railway Board orders "double-lock" arrangement for all relay rooms with train operational systems, relay hut housing signaling and telecommunication equipment at level-crossings and point and track circuit signals
New Delhi:The Railway Board on Saturday ordered implementation of 'double lock' arrangement for all its signaling assets and also issued directions to strengthen the protocol for resuming movement of trains after maintenance work. The officers provided this information. The Railway Board has issued several instructions for the railway zones after more than 280 passengers were killed in the horrific train accident on June 2 in Odisha's Balasore district.
The Board has ordered "double-lock" arrangements for all relay rooms with train operational systems, relay huts housing signaling and telecommunication equipment at level-crossings and point and track circuit signals. The order indicated that the "access to the relay room" caused "interference with the signaling system, causing the Coromandel Express to go into the loop line at Balasore and hit a stationary goods train, causing the accident".
Senior officials said there was enough evidence to show that the interlocking system had been tampered with, so now the mechanism has to be made "tamper-proof". "This double locking will ensure that no one can access these places without permission," said an official.
The order states that level crossing gates (gumti/cabins), signaling rooms and telecommunication equipment in station yards should be treated as relay huts and unless "double-locked" arrangements are provided, then The key of the existing "single lock" will remain with the Station Master.
"Relevant entries regarding issue and deposit of keys shall be maintained by the station master in the same manner as in the station relay room," the order said.
The order said that the proforma for handing over/taking back of the key by the Assistant Station Manager (ASM) on duty shall contain a column specifying that the location for which the key was taken over by the maintenance staff shall be properly closed. has been given and locked by the maintenance staff.
Officials said that one aspect that has emerged from the preliminary investigation is that some work was going on near the accident site. He said that a disconnection memo (to close the interlocking system and start work) and a reconnection memo (reconnection of the system indicating the end of work) had been received by the station manager.
However, in reality, the technician bypassed the system as the work was not completed and he manipulated the location box to get a "green signal" for the Coromandel Express, he added.
The present order, thus, lays down proper disconnection-reconnection protocol, to be followed for signal maintenance, repair, alteration works. This is the third such order on signaling issued by the Railway Board since the accident.
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