Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s ability to turn the Indian Railways around has been severely jolted by the massive accident, severest in six years, involving the Indore Patna Express in which at least 120 passengers have died. As this comes close on the heels of reports that the railways has had a very poor financial run in the first half of the current financial year, it creates the sense that the railways is getting little that is right. This is all the more unfortunate as Mr Prabhu came to head the Indian Railways amidst high hopes that he would steer the public sector behemoth away from populism and towards performance and efficiency. The preliminary indications suggest rail fracture as the cause of the accident on Sunday. If this is borne out by the findings of a formal inquiry, there cannot be a greater indictment of the current priorities of the railways. Timely track renewal is an absolute must and the arrears that have built up on this front have created a situation in which accidents are just waiting to happen.
Reports suggest that casualties in the latest accident are high because the affected bogies telescoped into each other. This would not have happened if modern, safer bogies had been in use. It is also reported that the train was running over an hour late, reflective of a lackadaisical attitude that remains a routine feature of the railways. The commitment to safety can be gauged from the allocation and spending under appropriation to the depreciation reserve fund in the railway Budget, which is used to fund track renewal. In his first Budget (2015-16), Mr Prabhu allocated Rs 7,900 crore but in the revised estimates this went down to Rs 5,500 crore. What is worse, in the current Budget (2016-17) only Rs 3,200 crore has been allocated. The fall in allocation has been highlighted by Lalu Prasad, credited with having shepherded a golden era for the railways, who has compared it to the allocation of Rs 6,000 crore in 2008-09. He has naturally iterated the demand that the proposal made by the Kakodkar committee for a second special railway safety fund be implemented.
As the railways is not generating a surplus, allocation to this fund has to come entirely from the general Budget. Without a separate railway Budget, the stand-alone nature of the railways will be gone and so there can be no excuse for not funding essential safety expenditure from the general Budget. Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly emphasised “new speed, progress and new capacity” as well as the need for innovation in the Indian Railways. But, conspicuous by its absence in this list of priorities was the call for safety. This also provides perspective to the government’s desire to usher in high-speed rail travel even though Indian Railways lags in basic safety requirements. As this accident underscores, there should be no compromise in incurring essential safety expenditure. Priority in spending on new technology should be dictated by the needs of safety.
