Geological activity caused accident?

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 25. Even as an inquiry is in progress about the causes leading to the Kozhikode railway accident, the Minister of State for Railways, Mr. O. Rajagopal, today held a news conference in an apparent bid to absolve the Railways of the blame. The Minister said there appeared to be unusual geographical activity in the area. This was confirmed by the mysterious ``disappearance'' of some wells in the area. The baffling sinking of the bridge's third pier by two feet, it was suggested, could be part of this unexplained geological activity.

Although the bridge was over 100 years old, it was not categorised as ``distressed''. In railway parlance, a bridge with significant deterioration in its physical appearance is classified ``distressed'' and listed for rebuilding in the railway works programme. There are 11 bridges in the Southern Railway which are classified as distressed and the Kozhikode bridge was not among them, reiterated the Minister. Of them five are being replaced while work on the other six has not been taken up due to shortage of funds. But the shortage of resources would not been allowed to affect safety, he said.

He also stressed that the bridge was inspected barely days before the accident but could not disclose the inspection report submitted by the assistant engineer concerned. It was also examined in late March and no adverse report was submitted. The bridge appeared in fine fettle till the accident. This was borne out by the fact that Mangla Express had crossed the bridge only half an hour before some coaches of the Mangalore-Chennai Mail tumbled into the river.

Mr. Rajagopal ruled out a judicial probe because similar probes in the past had been extremely time-consuming. The report on the worst-ever railway accident in West Bengal in 1998 was submitted only this year. Judicial probes into the recent accidents at Khanna and Rajpura too are taking time.

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