Context: In an unusual move, the Centre on Sunday announced a CBI probe into the rail accident in Odisha as the railways’ preliminary investigation singled out “interference” with the ‘electronic interlocking system’ and ‘points’, which ensure safe movement of trains, as the “root cause” of the crash.

• At least 288 people have been killed and over 1000 were injured in a horrific three-train collision. The crash involved the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train.

Term Accident

• According to the Railway Accident Manual, "Any occurrence which does or may affect safety of the Railway, its engines, rolling stock, permanent way, works, passengers or servants or which affects the safety of others or which does or may cause delays to trains or loss to the Railway" is defined as an accident.

Train Accidents: Statistics

• According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, in 2020, more than 13,000 train accidents across the country have killed nearly 12,000 railway passengers last year.

• About 70 percent of these railway accidents took place as passengers either fell off the train or came in the way while crossing the railway track.

• Maharashtra ranks first and Uttar Pradesh ranks second, both in terms of the number of railway accidents as well as deaths.

• In 2019-2020, the Indian Railways (IR) recorded zero fatalities due to “consequential accidents”—incidents caused by operational lapses, such as derailments, collisions and fires.

What are the causes of Railway accidents in India?

• Ageing infrastructure: The ‘present environment on  Indian Railways reveals a grim picture of inadequate performance’ largely due to poor infrastructure and resources, and lack of empowerment at the functional level.

• Failure of railway staff: Accidents caused by lapses by railway personnel. Manpower shortages are causing many loco pilots to work long hours, beyond the 12 hours per day maximum, often without leave or rest.

Failure of equipment

• Rolling stock: related to the Mechanical Directorate (for instance, locomotives, coaches/wagons and wheels)

• Track: generally associated with lapses of the Engineering Directorate (for example, rail fractures)

• Electrical: usually involving the Electrical Directorate (for instance, failure of overhead equipment, electrical multiple units, or EMUs, and e-locomotives)

Signaling and telecommunications

• Traffic and Commercial: All accidents related to lapses, such as defective loading and unloading, and train operations with improper route setting and securing.

• Incidental: Accidents on account of natural or human-made factors, such as landslides, floods, earthquake or sabotage.

Accident type in Indian Railways

• The accident type occurred in Indian Railways over the years following the trend Derailment > Level crossing accidents > Collisions > Fire in trains > Miscellaneous accidents.

Factors Contributing to Vulnerability 

Safety in railways in most developing countries is influenced by the following constraints:

• High level of dependency on the human element.

• Low motivation, non-ideal working conditions for staff.

• Indiscipline and lack of work ethics amongst the workforce.

• Casual approach to safety amongst middle level managers.

• Paying of lip service to safety by top management.

• Lack of administrative and political will.

Impact of train accidents

• Casualties and Victims: Train accidents cause loss of life and property as well as are detrimental for the economy.

• Economic Loss: The data pertaining to the economic loss due to accidents in Indian Railways in terms of transportation & logistics, permanent way loss and compensation paid to victims.

• Environmental Issues: Many train accidents result in environmental contamination of the surrounding area. Trains that are used to carry a wide range of hazardous materials, from crude oil to chlorine and other chemicals can damage the environment.

Steps Taken 

• Mission Zero Accident: In the Railway Budget 2016-17, Mission Zero Accident was one of the Missions announced, comprising of the two sub-missions:

• Elimination of unmanned level crossings (UMLC) over broad gauge in the next 3-4 years. Currently,  all unmanned level crossings (UMLC) on Broad Gauge have already been eliminated in January 2019.

• Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS): To prevent collisions and signal passing at danger by the Loco Pilot through developing an indigenous technology and also to increase throughput by increasing average sectional speed on Indian Railways (IR). The system has been installed on Lingampalli – Vikarabad – Wadi and Vikarabad – Bidar sections (250 Route km) on South Central Railway. Further, the system is under implementation on 1199 Route Km on South Central Railway.

• Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh Fund: The fund has been created in 2017-18 with a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore over a period of five years for critical safety related works. It is a non-lapsable fund.

• Refresher Course to Officers:  Over 300,000 non-gazetted officers across the country have been trained through a refresher course to address lapses by railway staff through skills enhancement.

• Safety category staff is also given training in Disaster Management with emphasis on Relief, Rescue and Rehabilitation (three ‘R’s), Threat Perception and Emergency Response, Fighting and use of fire Extinguishers and First Aid.

• Fog PASS Device, a Global Positioning System (GPS) based hand held portable device, is used. It serves as an aid for the crew during foggy weather through audio visual alarm, whenever any landmark comes within the geo-fence range.

• Indian Railways has indigenously developed ‘Kavach’, an automatic train protection system to prevent accidents due to human error.

• Construction is also underway for the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, which aims to decongest India’s railway network.

• Later this year, the country will open Chenab Bridge – the world’s tallest railway bridge – in the country’s Jammu and Kashmir region.

High Level Safety Review Committee (Railways) Recommendations

• The Ministry of Railways had appointed a High Level Safety Review Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar to review the safety of the Indian Railways and recommend improvements. The Committee recently presented its report.

Key Observation & recommendations

• The financial state of Indian Railways is ‘at the brink of collapse’ unless some concrete measures are taken. This has led to a neglect of infrastructure maintenance.

• In the present situation, the three vital functions (rule making, operations and the regulation) are all vested in the Railway Board. There is need for an independent mechanism for safety regulation. 

• The Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), the apex technical wing of the Railways, is highly constrained. This has hampered the ability of the system to internalize emerging technologies. 

• The Committee recommends the adoption of an Advanced Signalling System (akin to the European Train Control System) for the entire trunk route length of 19,000 km within 5 years. This is estimated to cost Rs 20,000 crore.

Road Ahead

• Need for political will: Strong political will is the need of the hour to fill up the gaps and constraints to make the railways a safer and effective transport system.

• Fulfilling Human Resource Gaps: There are urgent steps to fill vacancies and reduce the long working hours of locomotive pilots. And, ime-bound filling up of vacancies in critical safety categories.

• Avoid animal encroachment on Tracks: Need for installation of fence along the railway track to avert derailments caused by cattle run.