NEW DELHI: Even as chief commissioner of railway safety (CRS) Janak Kumar Garg began an inquiry into the train accident in West Bengal, a political tussle erupted over the incident on Tuesday, with the Congress demanding the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and the government putting up a counter saying 121 people had died during Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s tenure as railway minister in 2013-14 in nine accidents.
A goods train rammed into Kanchanjunga express on Monday near New Jalpaiguri, killing 10 people.
Hitting out at the railway minister, Kharge sought to know why not even a single kilometer of the much-hyped ‘Kavach’ anti-train collision system was added a year after a major accident like Balasore.
“Why are nearly 3 lakh posts vacant in the railways, why were they not filled in the last 10 years? According to the NCRB (2022) report, 1,00,000 people have died in rail accidents between 2017 and 2021 alone! Who will take responsibility for this?” he asked.
The Congress chief said that Railway Board itself has admitted that the long working hours of loco pilots due to acute shortage of manpower are the main reason for the increasing number of accidents.
Refuting the Opposition allegations on safety, a senior railway official said, “From a peak of 473 accidents in 2000-01 to a mere 40 in 2022-23, the railway network has witnessed a drastic reduction in accidents, marking a significant improvement in passenger safety.” He added, “Kavach (anti-collision device) has been made operational on 1,465 kilometres and fixed with 121 locomotives.”
Citing data, the official claimed that the introduction of electronic interlocking at 6,586 stations and automatic block signalling on 4,111 kilometres of high-density routes have also bolstered operational safety and efficiency. He added that all locomotives now have been equipped with vigilance control devices to monitor pilot alertness and the GPS-based fog safety devices to help the train drivers during foggy conditions as part of railway national safety measures.
“The commitment to safety is evident with expenditures on safety-related works and track renewals increasing by 2.5 times and 2.33 times, respectively, from 2004-14 to 2014-24. This investment has yielded substantial results, with weld failures reduced by 87% and rail fractures by 85% over the past decade,” a senior railway official said.