Economic Highlights
New Delhi, 28 August 2017
Rail Accidents
DICTATS, SPEED MANIA CULPRITS
By Shivaji Sarkar
Two rail accidents occur, about 30 people die,
Railway Board chief resigns, Air India chief replaces him, Railway Minister
offers to quit. These are the quick successive developments in the last week of
August. The big question is: Would these resignations improve the lot on Indian
Railways?
Theoretically it may but practically it is
difficult. All of them are only technically responsible. None of them in
reality run the organisation, except conceptually. So if any improvement takes
place with the changes it would only be accidental.
The trains are managed and run on the tracks
by people at control, other operational staff, including Station and Assistant Station
Masters (ASM), and the crucial gangmen, who are the hands, eyes and ears of
railway safety. The human errors that often are blamed happen at these lower
levels.
Are they inefficient? Absolutely not. The
operational staff in the traffic, ASMs and the staff below them is the most
efficient. They are kingpin of railway safety. It is for them that over 95 per cent
of the trains across 17 zones and running
track over a route of 66,687 km and a total track of 119,630 km with 7216
stations, run almost to around 95 per cent accuracy. It is the world’s biggest
rail network. The leaders at the top matter marginally. The unsung heroes bear
the brunt of punishment but are rarely appreciated.
The Utkal-Kalinga express
accident at Khatauli apparently happened as the railway operational staff was
put under pressure through dictats to run trains at high speed while ignoring
basics of safety. It is unheard of that when the track maintenance staff
demands a 15-minute block – stoppage of traffic – the control unwisely refuses
it.
On an average, as per railway
estimates one unscheduled stoppage of a train has a minimum cost of less than
Rs 100. So in a block if there are 50 trains, it would technically cost about
Rs 5000 but it would have saved precious lives, infrastructure, and the huge
cost of restoration of the track and traffic.
The enquiry is not about human
lapse to find out why this block was refused and a train at a speed of 100km
was allowed to pass through virtually un-mended track but to spot the
responsibility on who or what circulars of Railway Board or member, Traffic led
to such disastrous consequence.
The gangmen are experienced
people, they use such jugaad -- putting a small rail piece to cover
broken portions often but that is for just passing a train at dead speed. At
Khatauli, this was used to pass a train at high speed. Surprisingly even the
station master, responsible for clearing the green signal, and others were not
aware of this maintenance. That also calls for probe.
No less surprising was the
accident next day of the Azamgarh-Delhi Kaifiyat Express hitting an overturned
dumper that was carrying material for building a new rail track. The lapses
here too are obvious. How on such a busy track, almost a train following
another in 90 seconds, a vehicle was allowed to cross the track without basic
safety procedures and information to control and the nearest stations? People
at top level are usually not aware of such manouevres. This, however, speaks
volumes how the railways are compromising with the safety continuously.
This is more surprising after
the most disastrous tragedy of Patna-Indore express derailment in Kanpur Dehat
killing 147 and injuring 180 and 12 other notable accidents through 2016.
The 2017-18 Budget has proposed
a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus for a railway safety fund. The allocation
for infrastructure stands at a record level Rs 3,96,135 crore in 2017-18, Rs
38,000 crore more than the previous budget. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says
infrastructure is the thrust area of the government for efficiency,
productivity and quality of life.
The approach is fine. But the
improvements that the system is looking for require minimum investment and
improving coordination. Often it is said that the gangmen are illiterate. But
recent experiences of the railways reveal that they have one of the finest
skills in detecting flaws including rail fractures. Recently, when railways
recruited some people with high qualification, including MBA, it was found such
educated staff lack the devotion the class eight pass, the minimum
qualification gangmen have. The educated ones do not patrol the track and
prefers to while away their time at level crossing sheds.
The derailments are increasing
as per railway data. In 2015, there were 82 derailments etc caused by staff
failure, in 2015/2016 it was 55 and 2014 it was 49. On an average it can be
said to be around 50 a year.
One reason is stated to be the
inadequate number of gangmen and their long working hours often because of lack
of replacement due to shortage of staff. Yes, the railways need to put more
people at this level to maintain tracks. It is often now being compromised.
They are the least paid but have the highest value for safety of operations. So
saving on this crucial component is penny wise.
Former additional member safety
of Railway Board, Kamlesh Gupta after the 2016 Indore-Patna train tragedy
commented that the accident was due to rail fractures, which is very difficult
to detect. Another reason for high casualty is stated to be the Integral Coach Factory
(ICF) coaches, which are said to pile up on collision as in the Khatauli
accident. The Anil Kakodkar committee suggested stainless steel Linke Hoffman
Busch (LHB) coaches, which have more efficient shock absorption capacity.
The railways have always been
crying of lack of finances. But recent figures show that railways earn more,
over 60 per cent from cancellation and dynamic fare structure. It means they
earn for not giving any service and playing on psyche of shortage of berths.
The operating ratio of IR was
high, at 93.6 per cent in 2013-14. There was a spike in 2009-10, from 75.9 per
cent to 95.3 per cent, due to the Sixth Pay Commission. Staff costs comprise
54.5 per cent of the total expenses. There is something fundamentally wrong in
railway accounting. The fare in many cases equal or surpasses the air fare.
The Railways need to revamp its
internal mechanism, appoint more people at the track operation level, increase
coordination to keep the tracks safe. Funds are needed but it is not the
culprit for most of the rail accidents. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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