STRANGE BUT TRUE
(An extract from an article appearing in the Economic Times dated the 4th November 2012)
WORKING IN RAILWAYS IS LESS SAFE THAN TRAVELLING IN IT. BUT HOW ?
1600 = No. of railway personnel killed on duty VERSUS
1019...
more... = No. of passengers killed in rail accidents
8700 = No. of railway personnel injured on duty VERSUS
2118 = No. of passengers injured in rail accidents
(Figures are for the five years between 2007 and 2011)
Around 15,000 people in India lose their lives every year after being run over by trains while crossing the railway track. Of course, crossing railway tracks is a crime and people who unlawfully trespass put their lives at risk when they attempt to take that dangerous shortcut.
However, a safety review conducted by the railways admits that the ministry also needs to answer why it has not invested in barricading the tracks or building additional overbridges. Though it was aware of trespasser accidents for years, the railways has been unable to do much about it.
The railway ministry also knows that over 1,600 of its own employees have died on duty, mostly while maintaining the tracks, in the past five years, apart from 1,100 who died in train accidents during the same period.
These people were killed because the ministry has not invested in state-of-the-art signalling systems, safety equipment and better locomotives, coaches and tracks.
Safety Last
The railways has also classified around 3,000 rail bridges as having been functional for over 100 years, of which 32 are in such dire need of repair that they have been labelled distressed bridges.
The report on safety prepared by a five-member team under the leadership of the former chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar, and the former head of the Delhi Metro, E Sreedharan, has concluded that the railways should not launch new trains unless it improved its safety standards.
The newly appointed railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal needs to read the report prepared by the experts to come to grips with the fact that he is heading a transport organisation that is in need of an overhaul.
The Indian Railways has a 13.62 lakh-strong workforce, handles 20 million passengers and 2.45 million tonne of freight and earns Rs 245 crore every day.
Despite these impressive numbers, the railways appears to have forgotten the basic mantra of any business that its viability depends on providing quality service to customers. Given that the railways has a monopoly over passenger rail business in India, for decades the ministry has not bothered to improve the quality of its service.
(An extract from an article appearing in the Economic Times dated the 4th November 2012)
