A horrific train accident on Monday, in which over 60 people have been killed, coming close on the heels of the one in May in which around 150 people died, has torn to shreds the accident record of the Indian Railways which had been improving dramatically over the last five years. The number of train accidents fell steadily from 2004-05 to 2008-09, bringing down the accident per million train kilometre ratio from 0.29 to 0.20. However, casualties and accident numbers are not directly correlated, with a collision being far more lethal in human terms than a derailment. The number of passenger deaths from railway accidents fell through the early part of the decade to 168 in 2005-06; in the current year, with not even four months gone, the death toll has risen to around 250.
It is for this reason that the corporate safety plan of the railways formulated in 2003 visualised that collisions would be totally eliminated by extensive use of anti-collision devices. But progress on this front has been slow, to say the least. With an over 63,000 km route network, anti-collision devices had been installed on only 1,736 km by 2008-09, according to the annual report for the year. A reason cited for the slow progress is that the anti-collision technology currently available is not very effective. But the railways have not come forward to say that they have thrown a challenge to the Indian information technology industry to solve the deficiencies of the global positioning system technology on hand. Funds cannot be an insurmountable issue either. The Railway Safety Fund gets a share of the diesel cess. The Railway Board chairman has been quoted as saying that “we will not wait any more” and import the anti-collision devices if they serve the purpose. It is tragic that it takes a major accident to concentrate the mind.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has much to answer for the rapidly deteriorating accident record of the railways under her watch. Her first reaction after an accident is to try to blame it on sabotage and if that is too far-fetched, then to aver that there is something fishy. Her agitational temperament, poor attendance record at Cabinet meetings and inability to spend much time in Delhi raise the issue as to whether she is doing justice to such a big responsibility as the railways and whether she is mentally more focused on preparing the ground for winning the next assembly elections in West Bengal. It is often forgotten that sabotage, which requires preventive inspection, and human failure, which has much to do with staff motivation, are both clear management responsibilities. India is justly proud of the achievements of its railways. With a little bit of focused attention, the sort that Lalu Prasad ensured through effective delegation, it can do much better. Ms Banerjee can certainly hope to win more votes in Bengal if she can demonstrate to her potential voters her administrative capabilities in New Delhi. Even those who are desperate to seek change would want to be reassured that the change they are likely to get would be for the better.