East Central Railway Suspends Issuing of T/A 912: All You Need To Know

New Delhi: The East Central zone of Indian Railways has suspended the issuing of T/A 912 after the Kanchanjunga train accident which claimed 10 lives.

The East Central Railway has directed station masters in its area not to issue the T/A 912 note to train drivers. The decision to suspended the issuing of the T/A 912 written authority letter was taken at a safety meeting of the East Central Railway (ECR), according to a circular issued by the zone on June 21.

The ECR's circular said, "It has been decided in safety meeting held by GM/ECR (General Manager/East Central Railways) with PHODs (Principal Head of Departments) and DRMs (Divisional Railway Managers) that during failure of automatic signal T/A 912 will not be issued till further advice. In the place of T/A 912, provision of G&SR 9.02 will be used for double line till further advice as mentioned below," it said.

What is T/A 912?

A T/A 912 note authorises train drivers to cross signals in case of failure of the automatic signalling system. As per reports, if a pilot is issued a T/912 note, he needs to approach a red signal at 10 kmph, bring his train to a stop as close as possible to the rear of the signal.

After stopping at the signal, the locopilot needs to wait for 1 minute during day time and 2 minutes at night at the signal, and then proceed with extreme caution at speed not exceeding 15 kmph in good visibility conditions and 10 kmph in poor visibility.

Earlier, Eastern Railway Zone also issued a similar order on June 19 banning the issuance of T/A 912to train drivers, however, the order was withdrawn within 24 hours.

How the Kanchanjunga tradegy unfolded?

The loco pilot of goods train rammed into the rear of the Kanchanjunga Express between Rangapani and Chattar Hat railway stations in West Berngal on June 17. The region where the accident happened falls under the Northeast Frontier Railway zone.

Later it was found out that drivers of both, goods train and Kanchanjunga express were issued the T/A 912 as the automatic signalling on the Ranipatra station-Chattar Hat Junction was "defective", as per PTI.

Initially, the Railway Board said that the now-deceased goods train was over-speeding, driver unions have claimed there is no speed restrictions mentioned on the note and its member was not at fault.

(With inputs from PTI)