Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Former Indian Railways lead engineer Alok Kumar Verma speaks to freelance journalist Rashme Sehgal about the twist of fate involving 3 trains in Balasore from Odisha on June 2, which killed more than 280 people. They talk about the diminishing functionality and protection criteria of Indian railways and the lack of accountability after a twist of fate. Verma blames the Rail Council for failing to live up to the whims of the political class, which has skewed its priorities: a service that millions want is being neglected, while trains exclusively for the wealthy are raking in huge investments. Excerpts from an interview.
Rashme Sehgal: A dissenting note from AK Mahanta, a senior engineer, questions the position of the 4 panel members who assessed the reasons for the recent exercise accident in Odisha. What is your reaction to this?
Alok Kumar Verma: It is a popular and mandatory procedure at Indian Railways, after an accident, for senior supervisors to rush to inspect the site. They are required to draw up a joint note on the conceivable reasons for the accident. and the operations supervisors, as well as the station master and locomotive inspector, prepare a joint note on what they believe may be the imaginable reasons for the accident. This is a mandatory procedure, and it is also not uncommon to give a dissenting note. According to the knowledge recorder’s report, Mahanta thought the signal was green for the Coromandel Express to use the main line, not the circular line. There is nothing unusual about a dissenting note.
RS: How does the knowledge recorder formula work?
AKV: It’s like the black box on an airplane. It illuminates the railway signaling formula and records events, for example, whether the signals have been turned on or not. It records everything automatically and is used to generate reports. It is a very vital device.
RS: There are indications that the signaling procedure was tampered with, which led to the Odisha accident.
AKV: The entire investigation has been entrusted to the Railway Safety Commissioner (CRS), the legal authority, to prepare a report on the reasons for the accident.
RS: But the rumors of sabotage with signaling were triggered through the Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw.
AKV: It was such a serious twist of fate that other people became nervous and lost their minds. I don’t know why the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was called in to investigate the twist of fate because, let me be very clear. , the IWC has no jurisdiction to conduct such an investigation. But it is anything that the minister involved and the government want. Their [investigation] can be considered a secondary act because the government did not reveal why the sabotage had occurred. CRS will be required to complete its research report, which will be presented to the public and Parliament.
Let me give you an earlier example of the twist of fate near Kanpur in November 2016, where another 150 people died. The Board of Railway Commissioners and the minister at the time stated that the forgery caused the twist of fate. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in charge of investigating, and a year and a half later dropped all charges.
Or take the twist of fate at Khatauli near Muzaffarnagar in August 2017 that killed 23 people. The lane inspector did not have time to block traffic on the tracks. He did maintenance because he believed the tracks were dangerous. the motive force of the Kalinga Utkal Express, arriving at full speed, did not impede the exercise causing the derailment.
RS: There was no curve at Indian Railways as a result of those accidents?
AKV: The CRS is looking for the immediate cause of the accident, however, there are systemic reasons that need to be addressed urgently. For each and every accident, there are many accidents and collisions nearby. CRS to read about the fundamental reasons for those events.
The challenge is that there is a lack of accountability in this country, and railways are no exception. Who is to blame for these accidents? What measures have been taken in response to them?
RS: Is it the speed of the trains that causes the accidents?
AKV: We don’t have fast trains. In fact, we have some of the slowest trains in the world, and yet we have catastrophic accidents. Maintenance boards are compromised. Our station agents and others are overpainted. Overcrowding in our general compartments and bunks is another major problem, increasing the number of deaths. In case of difficulties, extracting the survivors and the deceased becomes a challenge.
In the Balasore accident, the Bangalore-Howrah exercise was delayed by more than two hours. This indicates the chaotic situations in which the staff work. Late exercises mean that the total program is upside down. Everyone has to do extra work. This creates a lot of instability in the system.
RS: What other reasons for such a twist of fate may be in your experience?
AKV: The railway interlocking formula is robust, however, there is the option of disorders with signaling and interlocking, as the joint note says. ) is sent successfully. The Coromandel Express exercise was scheduled to cross, but the signal was placed for the circular line. This indicates a flaw in the formula. There was a malfunction in the blocking formula and, most likely, it was not properly taken care of. It was defective. The maintenance was not done correctly, so it did not work. This indicates that there was possibly improper handling maintenance work. The government claims that this disorder is due to outside interference. The key question is why the interlock didn’t work. work.
RS: Could the Coromandel Express have been informed?
AKV: Station chiefs have walkie-talkies, just like locomotive drivers. The red flags have become extinct. Installing red refractory light fixtures is also a popular procedure when a signal is not working. But I argue that this indicates a formulaic flaw in railways, which run at 125% to 150% of their capacity, whereas a popular procedure is that for a formula to work, it will have to run at 70% to 90% of its capacity, as is the case with railways around the world.
Otherwise, shortcuts are taken, which is precisely what happened in Khatauli in 2017. The track engineer could not fix the tracksdoing his job. It has not agreed to make reparations. But in Balasore, they haven’t even installed red luminaires — light signals with refractors — that make them visual to exercise drivers a kilometer away.
RS: A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) just two years ago highlighted several deficiencies in the railways that you mention. How serious are those reports?
AKV: The GAC reports have pointed out many limitations, but their main task is to read about the accounts; They are not a technical [railway] authority. Their audit reports do not report on congestion on our roads. What action have they or any other framework taken on the large number of injuries over the 25-plus years, or on the key factor in determining liability?People deserve to be imprisoned for the negligence of criminals. The 2016 and 2017 injuries in Khatauli and Kanpur are recent injuries. People deserve not to be allowed.
RS: Let’s go back to our rail protection system. How is the procedure?
AKV: In our system, the CRS and nine tax commissioners from other regions are involved with protecting exercise movements. It is up to the CRS to follow things up and establish responsibilities. You will also have to monitor the decisions of the Board. of Railway Producers and ensure that they are consistent with their protection decisions.
For example, in the North East, the railways opened a new passenger line between Lumding and Silchar in late 2015 after converting it to broad gauge. This was done without properly reading the ground situations or preparing the proper alignments. The Railway Board also did a thorough investigation before leading the way. I was then chief engineer of the railways and ordered the closure of the line for a while because of the common landslides blocking the tracks and because of the very heavy rains. The General Manager overturned my resolution and two consecutive derailments followed within 3 days. Why has no duty been established? Why was the runway allowed to open?Accidents occur due to systemic problems.
RS: It seems pretty gloomy from what you’re saying.
AKV: The railroads are in the UCI. No we must forget that the railroads are the sustenance of the economy and social life of a nation. Only 2% of our population can travel by car or plane. Traveling long distances by car is hardly viable. After 2005, the railways could not keep up with traffic demands, and if we take a look at the railway charts, there are hardly any passengers left after this year. The railways are expected to grow by 5% to 10% between 1990 and 2000. These were very smart years for us, however, after the Covid-19 pandemic, passenger and cargo traffic declined.
RS: What points should be taken into account to stimulate investment in maritime infrastructure?
AKV: We are building beloved highways at a phenomenal rate, and airlines and air traffic are also expanding by 10%, but the most climate- and environmentally friendly means of transportation, rail, has been neglected, which is very tragic. due to misplaced priorities.
RS: Why this bias in priorities?
AKV: The answer is very simple. Automakers, oil corporations and airlines are very tough lobbies. In China, railways are physically powerful and have made great progress. There, even the richest prefer to exercise.
These lobbies worked against American and European railroads in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Only after the 1972 Arab-Israeli war, when oil costs skyrocketed, did European nations wake up and begin investing heavily in railways. Facts.
Airlines, automobiles, and oil corporations are privately owned, but railroads grow without government support. The question the country wishes to ask the government is why neither it nor the Railway Commission are paying attention to congestion on our main routes from Delhi to Chennai, Delhi to Mumbai and Delhi to Calcutta. On those roads alone, congestion exceeds 125% to 150%.
RS: Surely Indian Railways will have to push for decongestion on the main roads and ask for more lines along them.
AKV: I agree. The Board of Railroad Commissioners does not anticipate your needs. Take the [next] bullet exercise between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Their prices are astronomical and double those of a giant line. We are spending Rs 2 lakh crore on the structure of a 500 km autonomous line, which the other exercises will not use because they run on a gauge. At a cost of Rs 7 lakh crore, we may have improved 15,000 kilometers of our main roads and gotten rid of all the bottlenecks. We choose to spend billions of rupees on a high-speed autonomous exercise, when that money could have been used to upgrade thousands of kilometers of track used by millions of commuters. The railway councils are guilty of subsidizing such a task because those who can travel by high train are a class that can without problems plane tickets. They deserve to have given up and not allow it.
It is the same with our Vande Bharat trains on which Rs 60,000 crore are spent. They charge twice as much as a Shatabdi, but will only save 10 to 15 minutes of time. This is because our lanes do not allow RapidArray. more trains like the Coromandel Express.
We want to start building new lines and modernize our existing lines. Unfortunately, this has not happened, this challenge has been around for 10 to 20 years. Traffic jams and protection challenges deserve to be key, while allowing time for mandatory maintenance work. Please note that the fate turn rate in our country is at the same point as [developing countries like] Pakistan, Congo or Tanzania, however, no fate turn of such magnitude as Balasore has occurred in those countries.
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