Resuming services just over two days after India’s deadliest rail crash in over two decades, trains crossed the disaster spot in eastern Odisha state, where at least 275 people died, and 1,200 were injured in a collision between three trains.
Signal failure emerged as a likely cause of the disaster on Friday when Reuters reported that a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks, and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction near the district of Balasore.
The railway administration stated that trains had begun to run after two days of rescue and maintenance work.
“Trains are required to control their speed and proceed slowly for a certain distance,” an Indian Railways officer said.
India’s Railway Board, the top executive body, has recommended that the Central Bureau of Investigation take over the probe into the cause of the disaster.
“We have to move towards normalization… Our responsibility is not over yet,” railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters.
Two days before, at least 250 people were killed, and nearly 1000 were injured when two passenger trains collided in India’s Odisha state.
The incident was the country’s bloodiest rail accident in over a decade.
