What were the reasons and what measures can be taken to avoid such accidents in the future?
The Indian Railway system is regarded as the foundation and lifeblood of the economy. Indian railways span over thousands of kilometers practically covering the entire nation, making it the fourth largest in the world after US, China, and Russia. Due to its low cost and effective operations, railways continue to be the most popular means of transportation for the majority of Indians when traveling long distances.
There are over 22,539 operating trains(including freight and passenger) with a daily passenger count of 24 million passengers and 203.88 million tonnes of freight. With a workforce of nearly 1.3 million , it is also one of the largest employers in the world.
Despite significant growth and progress in both quantitative and qualitative terms in recent years , the issue of Indian railway safety has come under scrutiny following the recent Balasore tragic accident.
What really happened?
The Coromandel Express , about 270km from Kolkata, with 1250 passengers onboard, was crossing the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, running at a speed of about 128 kmph; it did not have a scheduled stop there.
At the same time, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express , with 1,033 passengers onboard, was exiting in the opposite direction. At about 7pm, the Coromandel Express approaching from the north suddenly entered the loop railway line where a freight train loaded with heavy iron ore was standing.
As the Coromandel Express smashed into the freight train, nearly 20 of the passenger coaches derailed and formed a mangled pile — some also flanged into a barren field on the other side and others struck the tail of the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express, derailing 2–3 of its coaches.
This devastating crash involving three trains has killed 275 people and left more than 1000 injured, many of them seriously.
Full details of how exactly the deadly crash happened is still under investigation. There are four tracks at the Bahanaga Bazar railway station. Two loop lines and two main lines. Track 1 & Track 4 had good trains parked on them. The passenger trains had been traveling on tracks 2 & 3 in opposite directions. For some reason, the Coromandel Express traveling at 128kmph left its line and entered a loop line, smashing into the back of the stationary goods train.
According to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the crash happened due to the “change that occurred during electronic interlocking”. In other words, it refers to a complex signal system designed to stop trains from colliding by arranging their movement on the tracks.
What is the electronic interlocking system in railways?
Interlocking is a system meant to ensure that conflicting signals are not sent, resulting in more than one train ending up on the same section of the track around the same time, risking a collision.
The interlocking system primarily has three main components-
- Signals: These work similar to our usual traffic signals that are meant to indicate the status of the track ahead.
- Track: These electrical circuits indicate the occupancy of the track by detecting the presence of trains.
- Points: This component allows the trains to change their tracks. Also known as switch rails, points are movable rails that guide the wheel of a train towards a straight track or a diverging one. Once the direction of the train has been ascertained, the points get locked in that position. When this happens, the train cannot budge till it has passed.
Who gives the signals and operates the interlocking system?
The interlocking system is monitored by personnel from the signalling and telecommunication department of the Railways. These people monitor the tracks, send out signals and are responsible for ensuring safe movement. Most of the interlocking systems in the Indian Railways are electronically driven these days, wherein there is a single integrated mechanism in a signal cabin that displays the track layout indicating the sections that are occupied, free or set for any activity.
Electronic interlocking systems use e-control systems and computers in order to regulate train movement. The chances that the machine would fault were only 0.1 percent.
What do the railway officials have to say?
The driver-related error has been ruled out hence speculations are on a faulty interlocking system. “There is probability of some kind of signalling interference…whether it was manual or incidental, wear and tear related, maintenance failure or weather related will come out in the CRS inquiry,” Jaya Verma Sinha, Member of Operations and Business development, Railway Board.
“It is called a fail-safe system, so it means that even if it fails, all the signals will turn red and all train operations will stop. Now, as the minister said there was a problem with the signalling system. It could be that someone has done some digging without seeing the cables. Running of any machine is prone to failures,” Sinha said.
History of Train — Accidents-
The central government, in power for nine years, has invested tens of billions of dollars in the railways. The money has been spent on renovating or replacing the old tracks laid by the British in the 19th century, introducing new trains such as the modern Vande Bharat and removing thousands of unmanned railway crossings. The government has been inaugurating electric medium-range trains and is building a Japanese-style “bullet train” corridor on the west coast to connect Mumbai with Ahmedabad.
Rail safety more generally has improved in recent years, with the total number of serious train accidents dropping steadily to 22 in the 2020 fiscal year, from more than 300 annually two decades ago. By 2020, for two years in a row, India had recorded no passenger deaths in rail accidents. Until 2017, more than 100 passengers were killed every year.
Despite efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents happen every year.
In 2016, 14 train cars derailed in India’s northeast in the middle of the night, killing more than 140 passengers and injuring 200 others. Officials at the time said a “fracture” in the tracks might have been responsible. In 2017, a late-night derailment in southern India killed at least 36 passengers and injured 40 others.
The deadliest accident in the history of Indian rail is believed to have been in 1981, when a passenger train derailed as it was crossing a bridge in the state of Bihar. Its cars sank into the Bagmati River, killing an estimated 750 passengers; many bodies were never recovered.
Shortcomings in the Indian Railways -
According to a report by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General, Indian Railways recorded 2,017 accidents from 2017 to 2021. Derailments accounted for 69 percent of the accidents, resulting in 293 deaths. Official data also suggests derailments are the most common form of rail accidents in India.
Other causes of train accidents include fire in trains (20 accidents), accidents at unmanned level-crossings (13 accidents), collisions (11 accidents), accidents at manned level crossings (8 accidents), and miscellaneous incidents (2 accidents).
Factors Responsible for Derailments:
- Analysis of inquiry reports revealed 23 factors contributing to derailments in 16 Zonal Railways and 32 divisions.
- The major factor responsible for derailments was related to maintenance of track (167 cases), followed by deviation of track parameters beyond permissible limits (149 cases) and bad driving/overspeeding (144 cases).
Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK)-
- The CAG also analysed the performance of RRSK, established in 2017–18 to strengthen safety measures on the rail network to prevent accidents with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore.
- The audit found that while the Gross Budgetary Support of Rs 15,000 crore had been contributed, the Railways’ internal resources fell short of the target for funding the remaining Rs 5,000 crore per year to RRSK.
- This shortfall of funds from internal resources undermined the primary objective of creating RRSK to enhance safety in Railways.
Declining Allotment of Funds for Track Renewal-
The report highlighted a decline in the allotment of funds for track renewal works, from Rs 9,607 crore in 2018–19 to Rs 7,417 crore in 2019–20.
- Furthermore, the allocated funds for track renewal works were not fully utilised.
- Out of 1,127 derailments during 2017–21, 289 derailments (26%) were linked to track renewals.
Overburdening and Heavy traffic on railway tracks-
Indian trains run on mixed tracks with both passenger and goods trains running on the same track. The lines are mostly over-utilized and clogged, and because of this, the time available to carry out routine maintenance activity has been shrinking.
Signal malfunctions and faulty signaling systems-
In February, Hari Shankar Verma, a railways manager, wrote a letter to the government about a “serious unsafe” train incident that occurred at the Hosadurga Road Station in the south Indian city of Mysore, where a head-on collision was prevented after a train driver brought the train to a halt after noticing a false green signal. “The incident indicates there are serious flaws in the system … this contravenes the essence and basic principles of interlocking,” Verma wrote in his letter.
India has achieved some success in making train journeys safer over the years, but a lot more needs to be done. The entire system needs realignment and distributed development. We can’t just focus on modern trains and have tracks that aren’t safe. More needs to be done in particular to improve the safety of thousands of older trains that are still in use in India . The country’s railway system needs to prioritize safe tracks and collision protection first.
Solutions and Way Forward-
1. Implementing the Kavach Project:
Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system aimed at enhancing safety in train operations across the vast network of Indian Railways. Developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in association with three Indian vendors, it has been adopted as our National Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System.
Functionality:
- Prevents trains from passing red signals and enforces speed restrictions.
- Activates the braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train.
- Prevents collisions between two locomotives equipped with Kavach systems.
- Relays SoS messages during emergency situations.
- Offers centralised live monitoring of train movements through the Network Monitor System.
- Utilises Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) for two-way communication between the station master and loco-pilot.
It is crucial to expedite the implementation of the Kavach project on the various railway zones of our country to ensure enhanced safety measures.
2. Inspection:
Indian railways has hinted at a possible sabotage and signalling interference in the Triple train accident in Odisha, hence CBI is involved in the investigation. CCTV cameras, drones, infrared sensors and Radars can be used to detect the tampering done with the tracks.
Utilizing big data analytics and artificial intelligence to analyse vast amounts of data collected from trains, tracks, and infrastructure. This can help identify patterns, detect anomalies, and predict potential safety risks, enabling proactive interventions.
3. Modernisation, introducing new technologies, and hiring proper human resources:
The Indian railway system is overburdened with heavy traffic. Over 150,000 operations are run per day (that involve signaling systems) for track changes and the signaling of trains. The safety of our systems is extremely reliable, but then these systems are maintained by human beings. That is where the probability of error comes in.
They are trying to maintain the tracks and ensure that the trains keep running all the time. This one requires time, effort, and knowledge; probably that is where something has gone wrong. The training and upskilling at the individual level in the Indian Railways has definitely taken a big beating.
The top priorities should be to bring about a cultural mindset in introducing new technologies, making money to fund its technological needs and hiring proper human resources. We live in a world of IT (information technology), automation. So we should not be relying on human resources to do all these things. Things have to be automated and they have to be maintained by capable people.
Conclusion:
Whenever such accidents have happened before, they have pushed (the Railways) reforms in total disarray. We need to pull up all our resources, realign them to ensure that such an accident never ever happens again even while we continue to build new technologies to better safety and maintenance of railway infrastructure.
Most importantly, long-term alignments should not be sacrificed.
