India's Railway Board has recommended that the investigation into Friday's train crash, which killed more than two decades, be handed over to the country's federal investigating agency, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday.
Rescue workers completed operations on Sunday, with signals failing emerging as the likely cause of an accident that killed at least 275 people.
A passenger train hit a stationary freight train, went off the tracks, and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction in the eastern state of Odisha, a district of Balasore.
For future enquiry, for future investigation, a recommendation has been made by the Railway BoardRailway Board to hand over this case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Vaishnaw said on condition of anonymity.
In their first detailed briefing, the Indian Railways officials said failure and suspected malfunctioning of the electronic track management system was the main focus of investigations.
The computer-controlled track management system, called the interlocking system, directs a train to an empty track at the point where two tracks meet, Sandeep Mathur, the chief executive director for signalling, told reporters.
It also coordinates and controls the signals to an oncoming train, indicating whether the train has to move straight or switch to a new track, he said.
It's supposed to be error-proof, tamper-proof. It is called a fail-safe system, even if it fails, the signal will turn red and the train will be stopped, Sinha, a member of the Railway BoardRailway Board that runs the huge state monopoly.
However, as it is being claimed, there was some kind of a problem in the system.