So Balasore never happens again!

 

Less than a month ago, I wrote that while I would be the last person to belittle or downplay Vande Bharat Express as that would be like a father abandoning his own child, I did put forward a rough recipe for meaningful advancement of IR, particularly in the face of massive investments in Indian Railways (IR) which the central government has committed itself to.

 

http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2023/05/why-is-it-vande-bharat-alone.html

 

Modern trains and swanky stations have great visibility and therefore the politicians like to celebrate  them. But Indian Railways would not advance merely on the shoulders of these optics. There is a lot more to be done: to begin with, upgradation of track infrastructure and signalling system.

 

Little did I know that I would be speaking and writing on similar lines again but for a different reason - safety. This followed the Balasore rail tragedy of 2^nd June which has agitated the very core of our country. The last time an accident of this magnitude with so many fatalities had occurred, was in 1999 at Gaisal on North Frontier Railway zone of Indian Railways (IR) in which two trains collided head-on and Nitish Kumar, the then Minister for Railways, resigned owning moral responsibility.

 

Readers already know what happened so I would not detail that. If you have time you may go through these two articles of mine which cover what I thought of the accident at the time:

 

The Hindu 9^th June 23

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/getting-railway-safety-back-on-track-after-odisha/article66947432.ece

 

The New Indian Express 10^th June 23

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2023/jun/10/rail-safety-can-no-longer-be-business-as-usual-2583465.html

 

I will take up certain queries and observations which filled up the news and social media space with varying degree of shrillness and smugness:

 

The primary observation was in respect of assignment of investigation to CBI in addition to the Commissioner of Railway Safety. It was rather extraordinary. While detractors of the government clearly saw it as a red herring to divert attention from culpability of IR staff and management, I maintained that while sabotage was a possibility, it was no more than a remote one. (Friends, with the CBI in picture, one could not possibly take a firmer stand as my own information was also based on hearsay and undisclosed sources. One pompous railway retiree known primarily for his grandiloquent writing here and there, spoke soto voce that I had lost credibility perhaps looking from some crumbs from this government. Indeed!) Today, with CBI arresting many IR staff, if there was an obfuscating lid on the affair, it has been blown away. It is now reasonably well established as a case of unauthorized human intervention in the fail-safe interlocking system by a Signal Maintainer(s) with access to a level crossing Equipment Hut to expedite their maintenance work so that train running was not affected with collusion of station staff. This whole group of staff seems to have been complicit in a criminally negligent or casually cavalier short cutting of procedures. What CRS and CBI need to uncover now is whether such irregular working was something which was detected off and on but was dealt with kid gloves instead of a big stick? If the management dealt with such cases with undue indulgence, they are equally indictable, if not more.

 

One heard many say that accidents happen with regularity but barring strong rhetoric and diatribes across the political divide, things soon settle down to square one without anyone substantial being held accountable. That is, unfortunately, the case. Apart from the Gaisal accident, which was a case of grossly unsafe working for which the management, more than the lower staff, was culpable, in all other serious accident, IR management goes scot-free. Yes, I do hope that history will not be repeated this time.

 

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/to-kill-a-passenger/299410

 

An obvious question has been if the Electronic Interlocking system of IR is so unsecure from mala fide or cavalier interference that a conflicting route can be set for an advancing train? Putting things in perspective, however, the layout of critical signalling equipment on IR is similar to that obtaining the world over and it is not inherently unsafe. Without repeating what I have stated in the two articles above, I ask you to check out this situation in which the authorized maintainer cuts corners putting the lives of thousands at risk, intending to rectify a fault quickly or to speedily complete regular maintenance work. It is quite akin to a computerized safety system which can be hacked into by a criminal to destabilize the system and cause a calamity of enormous proportions and it is very difficult to make it fail-safe.

Nevertheless, this system has to be scrutinized strongly even as IR has quickly issued instructions for double locking even for the remote huts in stations. There is an impracticability in this, given the requirement of station staff to move to farther locations, a digital double lock operated with mobile phones or any other device suggested by security experts should well be thought off in the long run to avoid the solution itself from becoming a problem.

 

Something repeated ad nauseum by commentators is that the number of trains on IR has been increasing in its already saturated sections and that it has relegated safety to the background. Not only should this be reversed, the speeds of trains should also be reduced. This thinking itself is erroneous as IR can reduce passenger trains only at the cost of strong political fallout whereas any reduction in freight trains is counter-productive as it would cut down earnings of IR which is already in financial doldrums. Reduction in train speed would further clog the section. On the other hand, dumping this ‘either or’ narrative, immediate action is required to focus on upgradation of infrastructure to improve train speeds with enhanced safety. There is no scarcity of funds, thanks to the mammoth investments that the Central Government is now making in IR and this should be leveraged to proliferate Kavach, the comprehensive signalling system developed by IR at a much faster rate than today and undertake large-scale works to clear all backlogs of track renewal and rehabilitation by tripling the allotment of funds and work, with or without participation of state governments to eliminate level crossings.

 

They have also lamented the absence of culture of safety and it has become worse due to a large number of vacancies. No gainsaying against the necessity of a strong culture of safety. But it would take time to inculcate a spirit in all railwaymen that safety is paramount and takes precedence over running of trains; safety should be built into the system as far as possible. As for vacancies, while those in Safety categories should be filled up early, greater stress is needed for skilling of workmen.

 

You can read more about this, if you have time in this piece:

 

Hindu BussinessLine 13^th June

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/trains-need-not-be-slowed-down/article66965438.ece

 

One suggestion that I really liked was about utilization of AI to bring rail safety on firmer ground. Massive data related to train running is now available with IR but is cocooned in compartments of departments. Station data loggers and axle counters capture everything about route setting, signal commands and aspects and allied information. Nearly all locomotives and trains have powerful microprocessors which do, or can, land in a server with information about train speed, brake application and performance and host of other parameters. This mine of information is largely unused except for limited departmental purposes. If IR engages a competent agency to build AI-enabled algorithm for quick post mortem and later even generation of alerts, the impact of immediate monitoring and resultant safety-consciousness would be a great multiplier. I am no expert on the subject so wait eagerly to see this being taken forward in right earnest.

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