A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a probe into the Balasore train accident by an expert panel headed by a retired judge of the apex court. The PIL also seeks directions for the implementation of the KAVACH Protection System in Indian Railways with immediate effect to ensure public safety. This comes as Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday that the root cause of the three-train crash in Odisha's Balasore district has been identified and the affected tracks will be restored for normal services by Wednesday.


A lawyer named Vishal Tiwari has filed a petition seeking guidelines and directions for the implementation of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System called KAVACH Protection System in Indian Railways with immediate effect to ensure public safety. 


ALSO READ | Explained: What Is Electronic Interlocking? The System Linked With The Odisha Triple-Train Collision 


The plea submitted that non-implementation of the Kavach system at the earliest has resulted in a massive loss of life and damage to public property which imputes direct liability of gross negligence and breach of duty of care by respondent authorities, news agency PTI reported.


The inquiry commission headed by a retired apex court judge should conclude its probe in two months and try to examine the root cause of the accident and submit its report before the top court, the plea said.


Tiwari, in his plea, said he is seeking specific directions to the Government for the enforcement of the Railway Accidents Protective measures and to strengthen such measures to avoid accidents in the future and safeguard the fundamental right of life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.


Referring to train accidents that have taken place in the country in the last three decades, the lawyer submitted that authorities have been slow in providing redress in developing a safety enforcement mechanism against such collisions and accidents.


"The enforcement of safety mechanisms of the train protection system is still not done at ground level throughout the country as it has been clearly proven that Kavach, which is an Automatic Train Protection System, was still not applied on this route…, the PIL said, as quoted by PTI. The PIL contended that there is an absolute necessity of installing the Kavach protection system at the earliest without which no train movement should continue.


'Kavach' controls the speed of the train by automatic application of breaks in case the loco pilot fails to do so.


The crash involving Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, which were carrying around 2,500 passengers, and a goods train occurred around 7 pm on Friday near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore. At least 275 people were dead and over 1,100 injured in the accident.


ALSO READ | 'Rail Safety, Track Renewals Took Backseat': Congress Asks 3 Questions To Modi Govt Over Odisha Tragedy


Odisha Train Accident Occurred Due To Changes To Electronic Interlocking System: Railway Minister


The Railway Minister was on the accident site for the second consecutive day when he said the issue pertains to point machine and electronic interlocking. The change that was done to electronic interlocking which led to the accident has been identified, Vaishnaw said while denying that the incident had anything to do with the anti-collision system Kavach.


"We have mobilised all resources. I also want to say that Kavach has nothing to do with the accident. This accident occurred due to changes to the electronic interlocking system. The remarks of (West Bengal chief minister) Mamata Banerjee is not true," Vaishnaw said, as per news agency PTI.


"The inquiry into the accident has been completed and as soon as the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) provides his report all the details will be known. The root cause of the horrifying incident has been identified... I do not want to go into details. Let the report come out. I will just say that the root cause and the people responsible have been identified," he said.


He also stated that the kin of around 300 accident victims have been provided compensation, further mentioned that "We met the patients and doctors at Soro Hospital. Special trains are being run from Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ranchi, Kolkata, and other places so that patients can reach homes after treatment."