‘Khatauli station master wrongly held responsible for Utkal Express derailment’

A man takes a selfie photo near the upturned coaches of the Kalinga-Utkal Express after an accident near Khatauli, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

The All India Station Masters’ Association has written to the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) saying the station master of Khatauli railway station has been wrongly held responsible along with others for the derailment of Utkal Express last month. The CRS probe report is at the centre of a controversy because it relies heavily on the memo requesting for traffic block, which was allegedly doctored to insert the phrase “unsafe track” after the derailment.

Citing General Rules of Railways, the association said the station master had discharged his duties of communicating the request for a traffic block to the control room and the CRS report misrepresents the relevant paragraphs of the General Rules to indict the station master. Those involved in track maintenance had never informed that the track was unsafe for the station master to know, it said.

The probe report had indicted the station master for violation of the General Rules, where it is said that if the station master gets to know of conditions unsafe for train movements, he shall take all precautionary measures. “The Permanent Way Inspector’s memo was only requesting traffic block for crack and nothing about speed restriction or traffic restriction. Moreover, the bare truth, the reason of the accident was not the cracked glued joint, instead it was because of the cutting of the rail without information or protection,” the letter says.

Incidentally, Commissioner of Railway Safety S K Pathak, whose probe report into the Khatauli derailment is being questioned, is now also officiating as Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety after the recent retirement of the previous incumbent Sudarshan Nayak.

Quoting General Rules verbatim, the letter pointed out that since 14 trains had passed the point of derailment all day before Utkal and no loco pilot had reported any problems, there was no way for the station master to know that the track was unsafe. It also mentioned that in the voice logger, where conversation between the station master and the control office is recorded (the audio clips are part of evidence), the station master did communicate the request for a block and if he had indeed been told either through the memo or verbally that the track was unsafe, he would have had no reason to not mention that to the control.