What happened between Titlagarh and Kesinga railway stations in Odisha Saturday night was nothing short of nightmarish. A fullcapacity Ahmedabad-Puri Express rolled backward for about 13 km from one station to another—without an engine attached to it. Passengers had no clue as to what was going on until they realised that the train was actually headless.
As the enormity of the situation sinks in, one can only be satisfied with the fact that the incident did not end in a disaster. At a time when India talks about bullet trains, such an incident comes as a poor advertisement for passenger safety. This year, the Centre allocated about `73,000 crore in the Budget for railway safety.
It was necessary given the spate of train accidents recorded over the last few years. Though the railway ministry has brought in more focus to safety, several areas still cry out for attention. A recent CAG report showed that shortage of manpower and inadequate maintenance of tracks continue to cause mishaps. The audit carried out in five railway zones revealed shortfalls in track inspections as per the laid down frequency. Similarly, prescribed methods for preventive maintenance were not followed while railway zones continue to stick to manual maintenance despite a mandate for mechanisation.
And as the ministry accelerates modernisation of infrastructure, increases routes, trains and their frequency, it stares at a huge vacancy in its ranks which adds to work pressure and error. Going by available statistics, the 17 railway zones have a whopping 2.22 lakh vacancies in various gazetted and non-gazetted posts.
About half of it is in the safety cadres, which tells the entire story. It is not surprising that in such situations, a section engineer’s jurisdiction might vary from 16 km to a huge 149 km. The ministry must invest more in its staff and their training to bring in accountability. But before that, it must crack down on negligence. The safety of passengers is absolutely non-negotiable.