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Misplaced priorities risking rail safety

Last Updated 21 November 2016, 18:34 IST
The derailment of the Patna-Indore Express near Kanpur in the early hours of Sunday underscores yet again the need to prioritise rail safety. Over 143 people have died and an equal number are battling severe injuries, making this derailment one of the deadliest railway accidents in terms of fatalities that India has seen in years. Rescue operations are on. The death toll is likely to rise in the coming days as several of the injured are critical and many bodies remain trapped under heaps of mangled steel. The government has announced compensation to those injured and to kin of the dead. This financial assistance is welcome. However, the government’s responsibility to passengers extends beyond promising or even delivering compensation. It needs to act to ensure that mistakes that led to the present accident are not repeated in future. Initial investigations into Sunday’s derailment point in the direction of a fracture in the tracks. While a significant difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures in a day plays a role in triggering a fracture, a small crack turns into a significant one because of the pressure of heavy bogies running over it. Poor maintenance makes rail tracks vulnerable to such pressures.

It is a matter of deep concern that four years after the Kakodkar Committee issued its report on rail safety, most of its recommendations remain unimplemented. If its recommendations relating to passenger safety had been implemented, it is possible that Sunday’s derailment could have been averted or its deadly impact minimised in terms of loss of life. Some will argue that the Kakodkar Committee recommendations are too costly to implement; apparently, they would require at least a trillion rupees in budgetary allocations. But high cost cannot be made an excuse for de-prioritising passenger safety. India does not lack for money. After all, the Narendra Modi government seems to believe that we can afford to purchase super expensive bullet trains from abroad. It is misplaced priorities that underlie non-implementation of recommendations related to railway safety.

The tragedy that is unfolding at the site of the derailment should serve as a wake-up call to the Modi government. Sinking billions of dollars in bullet trains is unconscionable when thous-ands are getting killed due to poor safety standards of the Indian Railways. Sunday’s derailment and the rising number of train accidents should prompt the government to rethink its misplaced priorities. Passenger safety and infrastructure maintenance must be accorded priority over speed and cosmetic changes to our trains. Bullet trains and luxury train travel are undoubtedly great experiences. But of what use are these when passengers are unlikely to reach their destinations alive?

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(Published 21 November 2016, 17:42 IST)

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