Train accidents: SC appreciates protective measures by railways, disposes petition raising passenger safety

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday appreciated the steps taken by the Indian Railways to prevent train accidents, including the automatic train protection system 'Kavach', to avoid collisions.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan disposed of a petition that raised several issues related to passenger safety after taking note of multiple steps taken by the public sector behemoth to prevent accidents and promote safe travel.

'We appreciate the steps taken by the Railways,' the bench said, while taking note of the status report filed by Attorney General R Venkataramani.

While hearing the plea filed by petitioner Vishal Tiwari on January 2, the apex court had sought to know about the protective measures and steps implemented so far or proposed to be taken by the Centre, including the 'Kavach' system.

It had asked the petitioner to hand over a copy of his plea to the office of the Attorney General.

Referring to the train accident in Odisha's Balasore district in June last year that had left 288 people dead, the petitioner had claimed non-implementation of the 'Kavach' scheme was resulting in accidents. He had said a lot of accidents have taken place in the past due to collision between trains.

The plea had sought directions to the Centre to set up an expert commission headed by a retired judge of the apex court consisting of technical members to analyse and review the risk and safety parameters in the railway system and to suggest systematic safety modifications for strengthening the safety mechanism.

It claimed that the non-implementation of 'Kavach' at the earliest had resulted in a massive loss of life and damage to public property which imputed direct liability of gross negligence and breach of duty of care to respondent authorities.

It had also sought the issuance of guidelines for the implementation of the 'Kavach' system with immediate effect.

The petition was filed days after the crash involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, which were carrying around 2,500 passengers, and a goods train in June last year near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore.