New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Centre on the implementation of safety measures taken by the Indian Railways for passengers including the anti-collision system, The Kavach.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice K V Vishwanathan, on a Public Interest Petition filed by Advocate Vishal Tiwari, seeking a probe into the Odhisa train accident on June 2, asked the Attorney General (AG) R Venkatramani to file his response within four weeks.

The PIL filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari has sought a direction from the court to the government to set up an expert commission headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court to conduct a time-bound inquiry into the Odisha train accident that occurred on June 2, 2023, which claimed lives of over 288 people and left a thousand others injured.

The Supreme Court bench asked the AG to inform what safety steps have been undertaken and what are proposed to be implemented to avoid such accidents and for the safety of the passengers.

The Odhisa train accident was a massive collision of three trains resulting in the loss of lives of thousands of passengers. The Petitioner said that despite the claim of Railways of having modern safety equipment, why the model of Kavach is not being implemented by the government.