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The Indian Railways seems to have fared badly under the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime in the rail bhawan when it comes to its record on train accidents. The current financial year has witnessed more than 80 train accidents involving loss of 123 lives upto February 2015, the highest in the past four years.
For comparison, 54 persons lost their lives in 71 accidents last fiscal (2013-14), 81 persons lost their lives in 69 accidents in 2012-13 and 115 were left dead in 77 accidents in 2011-12. This data was shared by the rail minister in response to a question asked in Parliament earlier this week. It highlights how railways may be slipping on safety.
Business Stadard had reported in December railways may be on the path to record its worst performance in three years on accidents as safety data showed the number of accidents per million train km average 0.14 upto September of current fiscal -- higher than the numbers recorded in each of the past three fiscal years. The ratio has now slipped to 0.12 for the period April-January in the ministry’s latest safety report.
Friday's train accident in which more than 15 persons are estimated to have lost their lives after the Dehradun-Varanasi Express train derailed 30 Kilometer from Rae Bareily in UP follows another mishap in February when ten passengers had died and 60 injured after nine coaches of the Bangalore-Ernakulam Intercity Express derailed near on the Karnataka-Tamilnadu border. Earlier, in October 2014, two speeding passenger trains had collided near Gorakhpur leaving 12 dead.
The government responds to the mishaps typically by setting up enquiry committees, announcing compensation, claiming safety is its topmost priority and arguing that most of the loss of lives in train accidents occur on Unmanned Level Crossings (UMLCs) “caused due to the negligence of road vehicle users.”
The data on accidents quoted above does not take into account incidents occurring at UMLCs. However, 57 of the 80 train accidents in the current fiscal upto February 2015occurred due to the “failure of railway staff” while eight accidents were the result of failure of “other than railway staff” and another eight accidents were “incidental”.
The word “safety” figured twelve times in rail minister Suresh Prabhu’s speech at the time of budget presentation in Parliament last month. The budget talked about preparing an action plan for areas where accidents occur, a five-year corporate safety plan by June 2015, examination of pending recommendations by Kakodkar committee on safety by April 2015, developing warning system for road users at UMLCs, elimination of UMLCs and development of Train Protection and Warning Systems (TPWS).
The ministry wants to spend Rs 8.5 lakh crore over the next five years on key priority areas. This includes 127,000 crore planned to be spent under the “safety” head for track renewals, construction of road over-bridges and under-bridges, signaling and telecom related projects.
