CAG report on “Derailment in Indian Railways” exposed railway safety.

   - PIL in SC  to review the current risk and safety parameters in the railways - 

By Bijay Mishra
Bhubaneswar , 04-6-23

In wake of the recent Rail accident ,  while the “Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the year ended March 2021 -
Derailment in Indian Railways” is widely discussed , the Railway Ministry is in back foot for not properly implementing the recommendations. The CAG report said that 
“There were shortfalls ranging from 30-100 per cent in inspections by Track Recording Cars required to assess geometrical and structural conditions of railway tracks.”
(Para 2.2).  In the report CAG recommended that , IR should ensure strict adherence to the scheduled timelines for conducting and finalization of accident inquiries. IR may develop a strong monitoring mechanism to ensure timely implementation of maintenance activities by adopting fully mechanized methods of track maintenance and improved technologies. Railway Administration must follow the ‘guiding principles for deployment of RRSK funds’ to avoid fund constraints in the area of Priority-I works.  It recommends that , IR may prepare the ‘Detailed Outcome Framework’ for each item of safety work as per the indicative outcomes to gauge whether the benefits derived out of the RRSK funds are in the conformity with the objectives behind the creation of the Fund.
     
  The Comptroller and Auditor General report also flagged that the overall expenditure on Priority-I works from the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh declined from 81.55% in 2017-18 to 73.76% in 2019-20. The railway ministry had announced an allotment of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years starting from 2017-’18 towards the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh – a reserve fund for rail safety. The CAG) had pointed out to glaring disregard to safety by the railways as it spend 15-20 per cent of the money (about Rs 2,300 crore) on non-priority areas (non-railway safety) from the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK). Further, it was pointed out that a substantial part of the RRSK fund, aimed at improving rail safety was not utilised. The March 2021 CAG report noted that decline in fund availability and non-utilisation of available funds for track renewals led to 26% of derailments since 2017-18. 

    The report ,which looked into reasons behind trains going off the rails between April 2017 to March 2021, found that inadequate maintanenance of tracks was one of the major contributor to such accidents.

  Moreover, on the basis of this CAG report , a public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed before the Supreme Court by advocate Vishal Tiwari, seeking the formation of a probe panel headed by a retired apex court judge to probe the recent train accident in Odisha's Balasore.
The PIL filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari has sought the following directions to be issued to the Central government and Indian Railways:
- Set up an expert commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and consisting technical members to analyse and review the current risk and safety parameters in the railways, find the root cause of the incident, and suggest 'systematic safety modifications', within two months
- Ensure implementation of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system known as KAVACH with immediate effect to ensure public safety
Such accidents amount to the violation of life and liberty guaranteed by Article 21, the plea stated.
Further, past inquiries carried out by the government itself into such derailments have failed to yield the necessary results, the petitioner contended.
"With unregulated and negligent actions, the Respondent Authorities have time by time shown the country that there needs to be a strict judicial intervention on this matter as this matters the concern of public safety and life which stands at the highest pedestal on the functioning of any state machinery ... This type of incidents holds multirole consequences in the form of other train cancellations and diversions of trains bringing in severe inconveniences. The damage of public properties are widespread which are ultimately the loss of taxpayer’s money of this country".
The petitioner further submitted that a separate compensation mechanism is required for such tragedies. The petitioner Mr Tiwari appealed for judicial intervention to “make Indian railways safer and protect the lives of hundreds and thousands from tragic train accidents”.  The petitioner has also sought the issuance of guidelines or directions for the implementation of an automatic train protection (ATP) system called ‘Kavach’, which is indigenously developed by Indian Railways to prevent train collisions. According to reports, this system was not installed in the trains involved in the accident.

   Recently in February, the principal chief operating manager of South Western Railway zone had written to the authorities about “serious flaws” in the signalling system . In a letter written after a train averted a head-on collision, the official warned that if glitches in the signalling system are not fixed, they could lead to “re-occurrence and serious accidents”.

 As per the initial investigation , the accident likely took place due to a failure in the signalling system. The Coromandel Express had initially been given the green signal to enter the Up Main Line, but the signal was later taken off. Following this, the express train entered a loop line where it ran into with the goods train, triggering the multi-train collision, the initial investigation showed.

  The Indian Railways said that Kavach, an anti-train collision system, was not available on the route where the accident occurred near Balasore.