Railway Minister D V Sadananda Gowda is all set to implement the Kakodkar Committee report on safety which has been sidelined for two years due to political reasons.
The ministry will prepare the blueprint of modernisation of safety within a month.
“The Railway Board is currently actively examining the recommendations of the High Level Safety Review Committee (Kakodkar Committee) with regard to their feasibility and implementation,” said the ministry on Friday.
“It is expected that the detailed examination of these recommendations will be completed within this month,” it added. A two-day meeting of the full Railway Board that concluded on Thursday discussed the ways and means to implement the report. The final call will be taken in a meeting on June 9.
The Board discussed the issue with the safety directorate, the ministry revealed.After taking charge of the ministry, Gowda had declared that safety would be his priority.
The High Level Committee on Railway Safety headed by nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar had submitted its report in February 2012 and recommended complete modernisation of safety by spending Rs 20,000 crore a year for five years.
The committee was constituted by then railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and it submitted the report to him. But he could not implement it because he was made to quit the post after displeasing Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee.
Subsequently, Mamata’s confidant Mukul Roy stepped into the ministry and he just ignored the report. Congress ministers who succeeded Roy simply did not consider it because it could benefit the Trinamool.
However, Gowda wants to implement it with the help of noted technocrat E Shridharan, who was an advisor to the Kakodkar Committee.
The recommendations of the committee relates to general safety matters, organisational structure, vacancies in critical safety category, shortage of critical safety spares, human resource development and safety architecture.
It has also suggested elimination of all level crossings (manned and unmanned both) with an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore for over five years.