Nearly 14 hours after the Ahmedabad-bound Jammu Tawi Express collided head-on with a local train here, killing 38 passengers, the Railways restored the communications system between the two stations from where the trains were cleared to run on the same track.Railway officials had admitted that one of the main reasons for yesterday’s accident was the breakdown, since Monday, of the archaic Block Instruments in Mirthal and Bhangala stations. Officials also restored traffic on the Mirthal-Bhangala track, although the two station masters—Mirthal’s Station Superintendent Ram Lal and Bhangala’s B K Malviya—are yet to be traced. The Indian Express visited the house of Ram Lal at Mohtli village of Himachal Pradesh only to find it locked. Malviya’s house in the railway colony near the Unchi Bassi station presented a similar picture. ‘‘He (Malviya) came here once after the accident but we know nothing more. From today morning, the house’s locked and we are clueless about his whereabouts,’’ said Unch Bassi Assistant Station Master, Ashok Sharma. Lal and Malviya have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligence under the IPC and Railways Act, said officials. ‘‘The hunt is on for the two, but we have drawn a blank,’’ Ferozepur Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Dharam Singh told The Indian Express. Singh said that immediately after the accident, the station masters had informed the Control Room that they had manually given private clearance numbers for the trains, as the Block Instruments were not working. ‘‘However, on checking the records, which have been sealed, we found no mention of these numbers. Only a man out of his senses could have given clearance to both the trains at the same time,’’ said Singh. According to Railway officials, the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety will begin his probe into the accident on December 17.
