Railways saw progress on several projects in 2024 but faced persistent challenges

Despite significant progress in various areas, over 70 reported cases of train derailments involving death of several passengers, remained a bigger challenge to safe train running.

New Delhi: The year 2024 was a mixed bag for Indian Railways as it saw progress on several projects but faced persistent challenges.

While on the one hand the Railway Ministry claimed to have crossed several milestones paving the way for a new era of modernization and progress, on the other, frequent accidents, inadequate manpower and frontline workers' issues among others remained major causes of concern.

Among achievements were the introduction of 62 new Vande Bharat train services in different parts of the country, four Amrit Bharat Express services between Darbhanga-“Anand Vihar and Malda Town-SMVT Bengaluru and the first Namo Bharat Rapid Rail between Ahmedabad and Bhuj.

Besides commissioning of 3433 km of rail line across the rail network, inaugurating train operations between the Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangaldan section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), operationalisation of Kolkata Metro's Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section which passes below the Hooghly river through the country's first underwater transportation tunnel, earned accolades.

"Indian Railways achieved 6,450 km of complete track renewal, 8,550 turnout renewals, and raised speeds to 130 kmph over 2,000 km in 2024," the ministry said in its 'Year End Review 2024'.

Other highlights included initiating redevelopment work on 1198 railway stations out of 1337 selected ones, introducing the upgraded version of the automatic train protection system Kavach 4.0, recruiting five lakh employees in the last decade - a number slightly higher than the previous decade - and dedicating to the nation the Marathwada Rail Coach Factory in Latur to supply Vande Bharat train sets.

"A project for equipping 10,000 locomotives has been finalised and 69 numbers of loco sheds have been prepared for equipping with Kavach," the ministry said.

Some projects which made progress in the year 2024 were the Vande Bharat sleeper trainset's first prototype which is all set to undergo field trials soon; the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag railway line which is proposed to be completed by December 2026; and the beginning of design and manufacturing of high-speed train sets that will have a design speed of 280 kmph.

Catering to the need of general passengers, the railway ministry declared its focus on increasing general compartment coaches in its fleet.

"The Ministry of Railways has introduced a system of publishing an annual calendar from 2024 for recruitment to various categories of Group 'C' posts. Benefits for the aspirants are more opportunities to those becoming eligible every year, certainty of exams; faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments," the Ministry said.

However, despite significant progress in various areas, over 70 reported cases of train derailments including couple of major ones such as - collision between a goods train with Agartala-Sealdah Kanchanjunga Express, Derailment of passenger train between Motiganj and Jhilahi stations in Uttar Pradesh, collision of passenger train with derailed Goods train at Barabamboo station in Jharkhand - involving death of several passengers, remained a bigger challenge to safe train running.

Inadequate manpower topped among concerning issues and the problem was so acute that Railway Board Chairman Satish Kumar wrote to the finance ministry and said that there is an urgent requirement for additional manpower to maintain the railways' ever-increasing assets and safe train operations.

Kumar also urged the finance ministry to give the board the power to create non-gazetted posts in safety and essential categories.

Various railway associations such as All India Railway Track Maintainer Union, Indian Railways S&T Maintainers' Union, All India Loco Running Staff Association, All India Train Controllers' Association also raised the acute shortage of safety frontline staff.

Vivek Mishra, assistant general secretary of North Eastern Railway Men's Congress, talking about Train Controllers' issues said the Railway Board constituted a committee to look into the problems of train controllers but nothing has come out of it yet.

"Higher grade, Higher stress allowance with retirement benefits and night duty without any ceiling to all, high vacancy, requirement of additional posts, better promotion channel with 3 to 4 grade pay structure, etc are core issues of controllers," Mishra said.

The slow progress of Kavach also came up in a report of the Standing Committee on Railways which, while presenting the First Report on 'Demands for Grants (2024-25) in the Lok Sabha felt the need to "speed up Kavach-related works and ensure faster penetration of Kavach across Indian Railway Network".

Similarly, the Committee on Estimates, in its report submitted to the Lok Sabha, after carrying out an in-depth analysis of the progress of 'Amrit Bharat Station Scheme" (ABSS), made several recommendations such as need for a dedicated budget, a robust selection process and provisions for maintenance among others.

"While Indian Railways has made commendable progress in infrastructure development, challenges in safety, affordability, and service consistency need urgent attention to ensure it remains a lifeline for the nation. Without a balanced approach to modernization and inclusivity, the transformative vision for Railways risks alienating its core users," Shailendra Kumar Goel, former DG of Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering & Telecommunications, said.