India News | Rajasthan Train Derailment Linked to Rail Fracture; CAG Recently Flagged Track Maintenance Issue
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The derailment of 13 coaches of the Bandra-Jodhpur Suryanagri Express in Rajasthan on Monday which left 26 injured has been prima facie linked to a rail fracture, officials said.
New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) The derailment of 13 coaches of the Bandra-Jodhpur Suryanagri Express in Rajasthan on Monday which left 26 injured has been prima facie linked to a rail fracture, officials said.
Incidentally, the derailment occurred days after a Comptroller and Auditor General report raised concerns over the maintenance of tracks over the railway network.
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The derailment of the coaches of Bandra Terminus-Jodhpur Suryanagri Express (12480) on the Rajkiyawas-Bamodara route at 3.27 am led to the cancellation or route diversion of around two dozen trains, a North Western Railway (NWR) spokesperson said.
"Prima facie, it is a case of rail fracture. However, only a detailed investigation can find the exact cause," a railway official said.
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General tabled in Parliament on December 21 has said that the zonal railways are ignoring track repair and monitoring rules set by the Railway Board.
The CAG said that according to the rules of the Railway Board, the track should be inspected once in two months on major railway routes with ultrasonic machines.
It flagged shortfalls in ultrasonic flaw detection (USFD) testing in rails and welds during the four-year period between 2017 and 2021.
An ultrasonic detection machine detects rail fractures which are not visible to the naked eye during trackman inspection.
The shortfall was 50 per cent in Northern Railway in respect of USFD testing in rails, the report found.
In North Western Railway, where the incident occurred on Monday, the shortfall was 11 per cent and in South Western Railway, it ranged between 4-41 per cent.
In South Eastern Railway (SER), the shortfall in USFD testing on welds ranged between 4 and 42 per cent. In Western Railway, the shortfall ranged between 10-37 per cent. In the North Frontier Railway, the shortfall ranged from 4-23 per cent and in the East Coast Railway, the shortfall was up to 100 per cent.
The CAG has clearly stated in the said report that due to the gross negligence in track repair, more than 1,229 derailment accidents have occurred in the four-year period between 2017 to 2021.
"The Railways may develop a strong monitoring mechanism to ensure timely implementation of maintenance activities by adopting fully mechanized methods of track maintenance and improved technologies," the report stated.
It also stated that the USFD testing was to be carried out at the prescribed frequency.
"There was a shortfall in USFD testing. Timely testing by USFD may help in early detection of vulnerable points and initiating necessary remedial measures to reduce the probability of accidents," it said.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)