More Carnage on the Tracks: Why Is Our Rail Safety Record Abysmal?

The twin railway accidents in MP highlights why rail safety should be a priority for the Modi government. Read here.

Rail Safety not a Priority

• In February 2012 Kakodkar Panel observed that in the Railways ‘there is no practice of independent safety regulation’
• Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi proposed an independent railway safety authority as a statutory regulatory body, decision could not be executed
• Kakodkar Panel had remarked the Railways suffered from an ‘implementation bug’

Another railway accident – in Madhya Pradesh – and the usual excuses. This time it is not human error but a ‘natural calamity.’  So the Railways have no responsibility. Compensation will be announced and it will be business as usual, unless Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu gets tough on the Railway Board.

It is not that accidents will not happen on a network as vast and as stretched as the Indian Railways. But to earn the benefit of doubt, the Railways should be earnest and have a credible mechanism to create a safety culture.

In February 2012, a committee headed by nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar gave a report on railway safety. It observed that in the Railways“there is no practice of independent safety regulation.” The Railway Board was“rule maker, operator and regulator, all wrapped in one.”  The commissioners of railway safety should be watchdogs but have “negligible role at the operational level.” Being employees, they could be over-ruled by the Board. Safety norms set up by the Railways themselves “are often flouted for reasons of operational exigencies.”

Whither Safety?

Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi had set up the committee.In his budget speech that year, Trivedi told the Lok Sabha that his emphasis was on “safety, safety, safety.” Nine months earlier, a day before he assumed office, the minister had to rush to Fatehpur Malwa near Kanpur, where the Kalka Mail had derailed killing 68 persons and injuring 300 others.

Given that experience, Trivedi declared there would be zero tolerance of accidents. As recommend by the Kakodkar Committee, he proposed an independent railway safety authority as a statutory regulatory body and an additional member for safety and research on the Railway Board.

But Trivedi did not remain in office to execute his decisions.Party boss Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress was cross with him and forced him out of office, even before the budget could be debated. Trivedi’s successor Mukul Roy reversed his decisions.

No Safety Regulator

If the Board were enlightened it would have advised Roy and subsequent ministers about the soundness of Trivedi’s proposal and got it implemented. Prabhu had said it would examine all pending recommendations of the Kakodkar Committee by April. In reply to a question on Monday, 3 August, Minister of State Manoj Sinha said the committee’s recommendation on an independent safety regulatory was “under examination!”

The Kakodkar Committee was appalled to find that employee casualties were “markedly high.”  During a 43-month period to October 2011, the committee said 1,600 of them died and8, 700 had got injured. What kind of leadership tolerates such a record? Track maintenance staff was the most endangered. Mechanisation of activity in this high-risk area is the obvious solution. It should have been articulated as anon-negotiable demand and implemented by the top management. Did it have to await the recommendation of an experts’ committee?

For the Railways evasion comes easier than action. The Kakodkar panel believed that 15,000 people got killed every year; 6,000 of them in Mumbai alone while crossing the tracks or living alongside them. The Times of India reported that 18,633 persons lost their lives on railway tracks in 2014 till October.

Massacre on the Tracks

The Railways consider most of them trespassers and do not own up to the deaths. Liability can be denied but not responsibility. The Kakodar panel said: “No civilised society can accept such massacre on the railway system.”The tab for fencing the tracks in populated areas and eliminating all level crossings is stiff. But if the Railways had the inclination they would have found the money, realising that this measure would pay for itself within eight years in avoidable repairs and downtime saved.

The committee found that trains running at speeds of 80-100 kmph did not have coaches designed for them. They lacked the casualty minimising anti-climbing features of German design coaches manufactured in Kapurthala and deployed on Rajdhanis and Shatabdis. About 43,000 such unsafe coaches were in use. Given the parlous finances of theRailways, quite a few of them may still be.

Quality norms were not adhered to even in the procurement of critical components. Pivotal fasteners in new coaches at the Kapurthala factory were found to be substandard. Roller bearing failure due to overheating was another hazard in Rajdhani coaches.

Substandard Equipment

The committee found that fire extinguishers were “rudimentary and insufficient.” Smoke detectors did not work on running trains, so flame detectors were recommended. But once an alert is sounded can passengers bail out safely? Aircraft are designed to evacuate people within 90 seconds. The Indian Railways has no such protocol. Passengers are supposed to jump out of emergency windows, braving fractures and sprains.Collapsible ladders? What’s that?

There was no standard list of safety components. The number varied from six in the western railway to 993 in the central zone. In the eastern and north-western zones there was no such category.

The Kakodkar Committee said theRailways suffered from an “implementation bug.” They have been installing anti-collision devices for more than a decade. There is no maintenance protocol for heavy duty stretches because of the constant movement of trains.

Money is no doubt a constraint. But a culture of safety needs sensitivity, discipline and empowerment of people –missing pieces in the Railways.

(The writer is consulting editor at www.smartindianagriculture.in and keeps an eye on the Railways)

(This article has been republished from The Quint’s archives in wake of the Indore-Patna Express’ derailment. It was originally published on 6 August 2015.)