Letters: Safety before all else

When the railway minister presents the Railway Budget on February 25, he will likely propose high-speed or bullet trains on various routes, besides increase fares and freight rates. Since the last Railway Budget, several train accidents have taken place and many lives lost in them. Due to shortage of trains, people still travel on the rooftops of trains.

There is a need to improve the performance of Indian Railways (IR), especially now when urbanisation is taking place rapidly due to migration of people from villages and towns to metro and mini-metro cities. By 2030, it is estimated that over 40 per cent of India's billion-plus population would be living in urban - up from 31 per cent in 2012. To cope with the situation, a financial arrangement has to be worked out letting the Railways Board own the assets.

People do not need new trains; they would prefer IR focused on core issues such as safety, modernisation, cleanliness and track improvement. Efficient signalling systems and GPS-based train control are the need of the hour.

S K Khosla Chandigarh

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