For speed and safety on the tracks, Indian Railways has problems to solve

Repairs or maintenance of a railway line is unpleasant news to break to station controllers, who along with officials in divisions, guide thousands of rakes and trains every day

Ten days after a multi-train crash killed 288 people in Odisha’s Balasore, the Indian Railways finds improving safety is crawling uphill. Repairing a line to make it fit for trains again is complicated enough but then it has to tackle the costs of a new network management system. Officers are reluctant to work in safety directorates for fear of "victimisation".

Responding to a growing economy, the Railways has ramped up freight and passenger traffic but its track length has expanded less than 4 per cent since 2013. Railway data shows that in the five years up to FY21, the average