Statsguru: Odisha three-train accident brings focus back on safety

The three-train Odisha accident has increased the focus on safety in the Indian Railways. The tragedy, which killed nearly 300 people, came on the back of increased spending on safety, and a falling number of accidents. Rail upgrade has been a key area of focus in recent years, shows an analysis of railway numbers.

The latest Budget shows that expenditure on railways has crossed Rs 5 trillion. The money spent on capital expenditure is close to 50 per cent, compared to around 37 per cent in 2017-18. Money spent on creating longer-term assets, such as additional tracks, comes under capital expenditure. Revenue expenditure is money spent on recurring expenses, such as salaries and pensions. The budgeted capital expenditure for 2023-24 is Rs 2.6 trillion, or double what it was before the pandemic (chart 1).
 

 

The safety budget is nearing the Rs 1 trillion mark. The share of track renewals, signalling and telecom works in the safety budget has increased to 22.3 per cent. Better track can help avoid derailments. Signal failure was the reason cited by a preliminary report on the Odisha accident. The safety budget is up more than 50 per cent since 2017-18, and track renewals have exceeded Budget targets (charts 2, 3).




As a result, the overall number of accidents has dropped from over 400 per year at the turn of the millennium to under 100 in 2017-18. The railways counted just around 500 deaths over the last 10 years. This may reflect the railway method of counting such deaths. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows rail accidents accounted for more than 20,000 deaths every year (chart 4).

 

This and other such anomalies will need to be addressed as the number of passengers continues to grow. It is already the world’s second-largest, next only to China, in passenger traffic (chart 5). Additional traffic in the future would also need more lines.


 

Russia (85,000 kilometres) has laid more railway lines than India (67,000 kilometres as of 2019). China is ahead with over 100,000 kilometres (chart 6).