INDIAN RAILWAY :- SPPED-PROGRESS-ACCIDENT

This romantic dream, written on a torn page of a diary lying on the side of a wrecked railway carriage, may have remained a dream just like the dreams of over 200 people who died untimely in one of the biggest and deadliest train accidents of this century in Balaswar district. The railway, which is called the lifeline of Indians, is turning into a dead end, despite all the efforts and the arms of those in power, it may be irrevocable for us to dismiss it now. Accidents can never be prevented if we always make the foolish mistake of passing the blame on to other people, thinking that they are only hidden or a reflection of bad luck. Its truth is easily understood if we consider the three-rail collision outside and the events that preceded it.

As much as the railway authorities have tried to explain so far, Sethru believes that the fatal accident was caused by a fault in the signal, making it more likely to be man-made. According to the minister, 'the change in the electronic interlocking system is the root of all the confusion.' The question is raised, isn't there a conspiracy? CBI investigation for that! Why and by whom the interlocking system was changed and how the signal to Sethyo was disturbed are the main points of investigation. The final investigation report may reveal its fate; But the big question that arises from this disaster is: Why Indian Railways, even after sixty-five years of independence, is not as safe as expected for the passengers? The number of accidents and deaths is increasing every year. A report quoting railway sources says that in 2021-22, the number of fatal rail accidents (in which people were killed) was 3, while in 2022-23, it increased to 48. One of the reasons for this

Most importantly, the neglect to modernize and strengthen the infrastructure of the old railway system. It would not be wrong to say that even the most important thing like signaling has been neglected, why according to another report (India Today) AI has detailed the aforementioned serious malfunction of electronic interlocking system mentioned by Railway Minister, General Manager of South Western Railway Zone, with an example of signal disruption in less than three months. He also highlighted what security measures are acceptable; But perhaps that matter remains unexplored. It may be recalled that several times earlier the expert committee has recommended to strengthen the signal system. The most important of these was formed by the Ministry of Railways in 2012 and Dr. 'High Level Security Review Committee' headed by Anil Kakodkar. It recommended that the entire 19,000 km of main railway lines should be equipped with modern signaling systems in line with the European Railway Control System within the next five years (ie by 2017); But even by March 2023, this work has not been completed and out of 6,556 stations, 6,396 stations have been implemented. Another important aspect that Kakodak Samiti highlighted was regarding accidents. A majority (50%) of rail accidents were attributed to track misalignment. Needless to say, no such dramatic change has yet been seen in this situation; Why is it that the 2022 report titled 'Derailment in Indian Railways' by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the government's own auditor, questions the government's claims about rail safety.

Reviewing the accidents that occurred between 2017 and 2021, the Chief Inspector said that 163 out of 27 accidents were caused by railway accidents, which is 69 percent. If miscalculation and collision accidents are taken into account, which occurred at Balswar, the number was 80%.1 Another important and critical point of this review report, this time clearly stated that 'it is common to blame human error while the problem lies at the root. 'Institutional' or formal. CAG informed about the National Rail Safety Cell (Rail Safety Fund) launched in 2017-18 and said that "289 (26%) of the 1127 rail derailment incidents between 2017 and 2021 were related to track renewal." As the reason for this, the reviewer of the Mahalekha has pointed out that underutilization of funds is the most responsible for this. According to his data, "In 2017-18, 81.55% was spent on priority work from the Railway Safety Fund, while in 2019-20, it decreased to 73.7.6%." Similarly, the budget for railway (track) renovation work was also reduced from 9607 crores (2018-19) to 7417 crores in 2019-20. The CAG writes in its review note: “This defeats the very purpose of creating a special fund for the financing of security-related work, as

"Security operations cannot be performed."

On the other hand, while the government gave a lot of publicity last year during the first implementation of 'Kabuch', a completely indigenous technology that can prevent collisions between two trains, there is still talk and controversy about it after the Bahanga accident. The first such anti-collision system was taken by the then railway minister in 2011