IANS/New Delhi

The Congress party yesterday sidestepped questions on whether Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee would be removed after the train accident in West Bengal, the second major one in the state in less than two months, in which at least 61 people were killed.

Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed, asked by reporters, if the party was satisfied with the performance of Banerjee, gave an evasive answer, “It is not a question of being satisfied or not.”          

“It is very difficult to comment without an enquiry,” Ahmed said.

Replying to another query on whether Banerjee would be removed from the railway ministry if there is a cabinet reshuffle, the Congress spokesman said: “It is for the prime minister to decide which minister will remain in which ministry and for how long.”

“The prime minister does whatever is in the national interest,” he added.

Ahmed said the party was confident the railway minister would fix responsibility after the enquiry report is submitted.

Asked about Banerjee’s moral responsibility, he said it is natural that the concerned minister will be worried about such an incident.

However, he said it is not possible to ascertain the reasons for the accident till the enquiry report is submitted.

 The Congress also expressed hope that the railway authorities would take adequate steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

“We hope government will take every possible step, so that such incidents are not repeated.”      Ahmed said political parties should not try to make political mileage out of the incident.        

Yesterday’s train collision in West Bengal that killed 61 people and injured over 150 could have been caused by an erring driver or malfunctioning signal system, experts say.

The engineers and former railway employees, said a train can only ram into another one from the rear on the same track if the driver overshoots the signal or the signalling system is defunct.

The railway’s official stance puts the blame squarely on the driver of Sealdah-bound Uttar Banga Express.

The railways maintains the driver overshot the signal.

Many experts, said it was tough to believe that the driver, co-driver and guard were inattentive while running a train at a speed of over 100kph.

G G Biswas, chief engineer (signal telecommunication) of Kolkata Metro Rail Corp Ltd and fellow of Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (Britain), said: “It is speculative to say the drivers of the Uttar Banga Express overshot the signal triggering the accident.

“Several issues need to be explored like the speedograph of the damaged engine. A thorough investigation is needed to find out the real cause behind the accident,” he said.

An expert said: “Even if it is accepted that the Uttar Banga Express driver (M.C Dey and assistant-driver Nirmal Kumar Mondal) had indeed overshot the signalling system, then what prevented the guard of the train from applying the emergency vacuum brake?”

Some, however, maintain that it was quite unlikely that the signalling system was defunct.

The movement of train is controlled by the automatic interlocking system, which is an arrangement that prevents conflicting movements in junctions or crossings.

An interlocking is so designed to make it impossible for giving a green signal to trains unless the route is proved to be safe, engineers maintain.

So if a section is occupied by a train, the block will be locked automatically and the signal turns to red, they said.

The automatic interlocking system can be defunct if maintenance work is being carried out. In that case, train drivers are given memo with instructions.

For Uttar Banga express no such memo was signed.

Some are asking why the train was at such high speed when it had to stop at Sainthia.   

The train, after leaving from Rampurhat station was asked to maintain an average speed of 110kph. But Uttar Banga express made an unscheduled stop at Gadadhapur station just 4km from Sainthia, railway sources said.

An engineer of railway’s signal and telecommunication department said: “All the assistant station managers are connected with hotline so that the information regarding train movements can be passed

“The official concerned of Sainthia station was informed about the position of Uttar Banga express well before its arrival. Then why didn’t the on-duty officers alert the drivers of the two trains?” questioned the engineer.