Arshad Shaikh studies one of the deadliest train accidents in India at Balasore, Odisha. The mishap, which claimed nearly 300 lives and left more than a thousand injured, sparked debate about train safety and calls to re-examine the safety standards practised by Indian Railways. Investigation into the specific reason for the Balasore derailment and collision is critical. However, it appears as if the entire system needs an overhaul, and it is the responsibility of the government and authorities at Indian Railways to ensure that the cloud of uncertainty surrounding train safety is cleared as soon as possible.
June 2, 2023, will be marked as a black day for the Indian Railways as a terrible tragedy unfolded when three trains collided in the Balasore district of Odisha. The collision involved the Coromandel Shalimar Express, the Yashwantpur-Howrah Superfast Express, and a goods train. The accident killed at least 275 people and injured over 1,100. The Coromandel Shalimar Express was travelling from Chennai to Howrah, while the Yashwantpur-Howrah Superfast Express was travelling from Bangalore to Howrah. The goods train was stationary on a sidetrack or loop line.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation but media reports suggest it was a signalling error, which caused the gruesome accident.
India has one of the largest railway networks in the world but has its fair share of train accidents. The audit reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), and recommendations by experts suggest that significant efforts are required and resources on a much wider scale need to be deployed to spruce up the safety level of train travel in India. Hopefully, the Balasore accident will act as a rude wake-up call for the Railway authorities to start caring about the lives of its passengers.
DATA ON RAIL ACCIDENTS
Indian Railways is a state monopoly. India’s rail network is the world’s fourth largest. The top three are the United States, China and Russia. It transports three crore people every day and 150 crore tonnes of freight along 64,000 kilometres of railway track. India has around 8000 railway stations and a fleet of 14,000 passenger trains.
Although the frequency of railway accidents is low, their overall number is quite high compared to global averages. NCRB data shows 23,000 people lost their lives in rail accidents from 2010-21. In 2021 alone, India recorded 17,993 railway accidents with 16,431 fatalities. 67% of those killed were due to passengers falling off running trains or being run over while crossing tracks to get to the other side. This means that on average there were 49 accidents every day leading to 45 deaths daily. There were 21 derailments and 88 train collisions reported in 2021, resulting in the loss of 22 and 86 lives respectively.
According to the Ministry of Railways, the number of accidents per million kilometres has declined from 0.14 in 2011-12 to 0.03 in 2021-22. Although this is a significant improvement, there remain many glaring anomalies, which need to be addressed urgently. For example, the CAG report says that from 2017-21, almost 50% of the mandatory track inspections were not carried out. Most experts say that poor maintenance of tracks and human error are the causes of most railway accidents in India.
WHAT HAPPENED IN BALASORE?
Media reports suggest that the main cause of the Balasore train accident was a signallingerror. The Coromandel Shalimar Express was accidentally diverted onto a sidetrack where it hit a stationary goods train. Around 10-12 bogies of the passenger train derailed and the debris fell on the adjacent track.
Unfortunately, the Yashwantpur-Howrah Superfast Express was travelling at high speed on that track in the opposite direction and it hit the debris derailing three of its bogies. Both the passenger trains were travelling at speeds exceeding 120 km per hour and the resultant collisions and derailment led to a large loss of life.
It all started with the malfunctioning of the boom barrier at the level-crossing gate. For those operating the Bahanaga Bazar station, it was a routine issue. All they had to do was get a signalling technician to loop the location box. This would allow an “all clear” signal to the passenger train regardless of the position of the boom barrier. The location box is placed on the tracks, which runs the interlocking system designed to prevent accidents.
However, on the fateful evening, the manual bypassing of the “all clear” signal accidentally directed the Coromandel Express train to the loopline or sidetrack where a goods train was parked. It appears to be a human error and only an official report explaining the accident will uncover the sordid details of how the tragedy took place.
THE LOST YEARS
After finding the exact cause of the Balasore accident, the Indian Railways need to reflect on its learnings and the structural changes required to avert another impending disaster. An important source of information to assess what Indian Railways “could have achieved” is to examine the rail network of China.
Today, China’s rail network is the second largest in the world. At 155,000 km its track size is double that of India. China first concentrated on achieving train speeds of 200-250 km per hour on its existing rail network. This was from 1995-2010. After that, China built new tracks that allowed train speeds up to 350 km per hour. It is expected to reach a track capacity of 175,000 km by 2030.
In contrast, India was able to expand its rail route from 59,970 km in 1970-71 till the existing 68,043 km. In 2017-18, the Indian Railway Board launched an ambitious initiative by the name of “Project Mission Raftar”. The objective was to double the average speed of freight trains from 25 km per hour to 50 km per hour.
It also aimed at increasing the average passenger speed from 50 km per hour to 75 km per hour in the next five years. However, the project did not see light at the end of the tunnel. Today the average speed of freight trains is around 38 km per hour while that of passenger trains is less than 55 km per hour.
COMPLETE OVERHAUL
Writing for the Indian Express (Repairing a Lifeline – dated June 5, 2023), Alok Kumar Verma of the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE) says, “The severe congestion on Indian Railways’ main trunk routes is the primary factor contributing to the trains’ stagnant speeds and their subpar safety record. Over the past 20 years, rail has consistently lost market share to the competition from air and road transportation.
“As capacity utilization on about 10,000 km of the Railway Board’s trunk routes exceeds 125 per cent, congestion has been repeatedly brought up. Track, electrical, and signalling infrastructure maintenance and fault diagnosis have suffered because of this severe congestion. Another result is a lack of punctuality, which has a negative impact on safety due to the overworked drivers, station masters, and trackmen.”
The push towards high-speed trains like Vande Bharat and the Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is welcome. However, the development of Indian Railways must be across the board and not be confined to certain geographies and only benefit people of a certain class. This inequality will diminish India’s stature and impending leap into the comity of developed nations.
Veteran journalist, Nidhi Razdan posed the right question – “Does India need shiny railway stations that mimic airports when it continues to be the lifeline of the poor and lower middle class, whose safety is a roll of dice?”