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8 days before Odisha accident, Railway board briefed on safety-first approach
The national transporter showcased an index based on the number of accidents per million train kilometres.
Exactly eight days before the Balasore accident involving three trains claimed 278 lives and became one of the worst tragedies in rail history, officials of the railway board briefed the parliamentary standing committee on railways on safety measures and assured it that their “safety first and safety always’’ attitude had resulted in a decline in accidents from 141 in 2010-11 to just 48 in 2022-23.
Read here: Odisha train crash: Father's unwavering hope helps find son alive in morgue
The national transporter showcased an index based on the number of accidents per million train kilometres (AMTKs), which it said fell from 0.14 in 2010-11 to 0.03 in 2022-23. The optimism of the officials of Indian Railways’ apex management body has left many of the committee members upset after the accident.
“The presentation was about how accidents are to be stopped in India,’’ said Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane. “The official did such a beautiful presentation. But if what they showed was correct, how could there be such an accident?’’
The meeting on May 25 was attended by 21 of the 31 members of the standing committee. It lasted 75 minutes and was addressed by the director general of safety and other officials who made a powerpoint presentation, which has been reviewed by HT.
In the presentation of six slides, the officials highlighted the work done with signalling and anti-collision systems and various measures undertaken to avoid derailment, all of which become relevant in light of Friday’s train tragedy.
While the Central Bureau of Investigation and Railways’ own inquiry is yet to get to the exact cause of the accident, it is believed to have been caused by a malfunction of or interference with either a signal or an interconnection, or both, according to a preliminary report.
In the meeting, the officials told the parliamentarians that in order to avoid collision, “Electronic interlocking along with multi aspect colour light signals has been provided at 6,396 stations out of 6, 506 stations on BG or broad gauge route,’’ according to data till March. Among other measures, they also said the train collision avoidance system, or Kawach, was provided on 1,465 route km out of the total 65,141 route km.
Aam Aadmi Party member of Parliament Sandeep Pathak tweeted a video soon after the accident, describing how the MPs were misled at the meeting. “I raised the issue in the last meeting that the government needs to focus much more on safety. It is more focussed on showing off. In 9 years, if they have only covered 2% of the tracks with Kawach, then to complete it they will take more than 400 years.”
Read here: Odisha train accident survivor's nerve-chilling account: ‘Severed head…’
The agenda for the meeting was safety, and there was no mention of staff shortage and allocation of funds, issues that were repeatedly flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and other parliamentary panels. The rail officials told the MPs that they had regular footplate inspections, night inspections and a constant review of safety performance at various levels. They also said that front line staff were constantly trained, including using simulators, to reduce human errors.
