What is the special railway safety fund that is now facing Niti Aayog heat?

The Aayog says there is an absence of advanced technologies to improve the safety, using the fund. This was despite spending Rs 55,000 crore so far

The Niti Aayog has trained its guns on the Indian Railways over safety and use of specially created Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK), citing that there is an absence of advanced technologies to improve safety, despite the fact that Rs 55,000 crore has been spent so far under the fund. 

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant also questioned the railway claim of having zero deaths this financial year and only five deaths in 2019-20, citing that over 2,000 people lose their lives in the Mumbai suburban network alone every year. 

What is RRSK? 

It was in the 2017-18 budget that RRSK was introduced for works relating to renewal, replacement, and upgrading of critical safety assets under Capital segment of Budget. Interestingly, it initially faced criticism as the Railways started cutting down on the Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF), used for key maintenance purposes, after the introduction of RRSK. Railways had lined up a corpus of Rs 1.19 trillion over a period of five years, with an annual outlay of Rs 20,000 crore. 

The fund was supposed to be used for identified works under plan heads Track Renewals, Bridge Works, Signalling and Telecommunication Works, Road Safety Works of Level Crossings and Road Over/Under Bridges, Rolling Stock, Traffic Facilities, Electrical Works, Machinery and Plant, Workshops, Passenger Amenities and Training. 

A major criticism from the planning body is that despite spending Rs 55,000 crore so far under the fund, there have been no major technological initiatives under this. The components of RRSK lined up for five years include Rs 44,979 crore for civil engineering works, Rs 43,444 crore for safety works at level crossings, Rs 10,140 crore for signalling and telecom upgrading, Rs 9,263 crore for mechanical engineering, Rs 9,495 for electrical engineering and Rs 1,861 crore for human resources development. 

Under the Signalling & Telecom works, a large chunk of money is being used for the installation of train protection and warning system (TPWS), train collision avoidance systems (TCAS), which are high-cost items for the Railways. In the letter, Kant highlighted that though 93 per cent of the funds were used in 2019-20, most of the expenditure has been allotted in replacing old signalling equipment and no effort was initiated to introduce global technologies like ETCS Level-2. "Introduction of such a system would have enabled addition of line capacity by at least 50 per cent thereby not only reducing congestion in the network but also offset expenditure on other capacity augmentation works," it said. 

Two automatic train protection systems, European Train Control System (ETCS) and Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) are being implemented along its track across the country. An investment of Rs 50,000 crore is planned in National Rail Plan on the modernisation of signalling and telecom systems in the next five years. ETCS Level-1 technology has already been implemented on 345 route kilometres (200 route km on the Delhi-Agra section, 117 route km on the Chennai Suburban section, and 28 route km of Kolkata Metro Railway). Now, the plan is to implement ETCS Level-2 on more sections as part of a trial run. In the first phase, Level-2 technology would be used on a trial basis in four sections-—Renigunta-Yerraguntla (165 route km), Vizianagaram-Palasa (145 route km), Jhansi-Bina (155 route km), and Nagpur-Badnera section (175 route km). Railway subsidiary RailTel had floated a global tender recently for these sections. Global technology players such as Bombardier, Hitachi Rail STS, and Siemens are in the race for a tender floated by Railtel Enterprises (REL).

Kant said that to prevent deaths on the Mumbai suburban network caused by overboarding in compartments or from the platform on to the tracks, the service should also be brought under RRSK and design of coaches in the network should include automated doors to prevent such occurrences.