Railways on Monday refused to take any blame for Saturday's train accident in Andhra Pradesh and said the state government had failed to provide advance information on floods and breaches to tanks in the region.
"We had no information at all about the overflowing tanks and breaches. We will see how we can improve this information system," Thomas Verghese, holding additional charge as general manager of South Central Railway said.
Usually, state irrigation officials provide an advance alert to the Railways about the danger of breaches to vulnerable tanks in the vicinity of railway bridges.
"In this particular case, we did not get any information. Otherwise, we would have stopped the train," Verghese said, adding it was 'impossible for the Railways to inspect the vulnerable tanks all the time'.
The engine and seven bogies of the Repalle-Secunderabad Delta Fast passenger had plunged into a swollen rivulet near Valigonda in Nalgonda district in the wee hours of Saturday after the collapse of the 20 ft bridge under the impact of swirling waters.
As many as 114 people died in the mishap.
"We look forward to a better information system to prevent recurrence of such disasters," Verghese said, adding that the gang-man on duty, Bandaiah, was washed away by the swirling waters and was rescued by villagers downstream.