Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has started a probe into the cause of the accident in which a goods train rammed into the Kanchanjunga Express from behind in West Bengal's Rangapani on Monday morning.

Vaishnaw added that measures will be taken to prevent a recurrence of the circumstances that led to the accident.

He stressed that restoring train operations on the critical route connecting northeast India with the rest of the country is a top priority for the railways.

"The accident will be thoroughly investigated by the Commissioner of Railway Safety," Vaishnaw told reporters at the accident site in Rangapani near New Jalpaiguri station in Siliguri.

Vaishnaw confirmed that rescue operations have been completed.

Pointing towards a possible "human error" on part of the loco pilot of the goods train who succumbed to injuries from the accident, chairperson of the Railway Board, Jaya Varma Sinha, had earlier in the day said the collision may have happened because the goods train disregarded the signal and hit the Kanchanjungha Express, which was on way to Sealdah from Agartala.

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