Stop shortcuts: Railway Board chairman message after Balasore tragedy

Negligence or interference in the operations of interlocking is prima facie being seen as the cause behind the Balasore three-train accident

Just three days after the Balasore accident that killed nearly 300 and injured almost a 1,000, Railway Board Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti had raised  concerns over the practice of using shortcuts and chalta hai attitude of the zonal railways in their safety inspections, minutes of a high-level meeting held on June 6 showed.

According to sources privy to the minutes of the meeting, Lahoti had said the purpose of safety inspections was not merely to find faults. At the same meeting, he had put the onus of training the staff on inspecting officers. “No shortcuts should be allowed. People should