The Secunderabad-Shalimar Weekly Superfast Express derailed at West Bengal’s Nalpur station in November 2024 due to a poorly maintained signal equipment that was over three decades old and had outlived its life even at the time of commissioning in 1999, a railway probe has said.

Soon after the incident, railway officials had called it an unprecedented, stating that when the train’s engine was moving on the main line and had just crossed a track changing point (Point no 26), a sudden command to the interlocking system diverted the coaches onto another line, leading to the derailment of three coaches. The incident didn’t cause any casualty or injuries to passengers.

The probe found that the command was sent to the signalling system by mistake because a signal maintainer’s body part hit the

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