Khanna probe drags on, Railways drag feet on safety

Justice G.C. Garg 8212; then a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court 8212; had been asked to probe the Khanna accident and was to submit his report in four months. Even today he can8217;t say how long it will continue. 8220;A large number of witnesses have to be examined. I have already examined around 125 and probably an equal number still need to be questioned,8221; he said.

If anyone thought the inquiry would be faster once he retired, he was disappointed. Garg was appointed Vice Chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal CAT and the inquiry took a back seat.

Explaining the delay, Garg said he was officially appointed in March 1999. 8220;There were problems of infrastructure 8212; house, staff, secretary, judgement writer and telephone. It took the Railways some time to take care of that and the inquiry started properly only in December 1999,8221; he said. Incidentally, the infrastructure for carrying on the inquiry is costing the Railways nearly Rs 2 lakh every month.

Garg said when he got the CAT job, he had resigned from the inquiry. 8220;But the government took five months to decide that my resignation was not to be accepted and I should continue with the inquiry. So I again started from October.8221;

If the probe has been virtually getting stalled, the Railways have not shown any urgency to put safety measures in place either. After the accident, Chief Commissioner, Railway Safety CCRS, M Mani had found it was a fractured rail that had caused the Golden Temple Express to derail. He held the engineering department of Northern Railway and the track directorate of the Railway Board responsible for the accident. He had also stated in his report that the rails supplied by Steel Authority of India Limited SAIL were not of good quality and had caused cracks to appear on the track.

As a follow-up action, the Railways were supposed to buy two Self-Propelled Ultrasonic Rail Testing SPURT cars to examine the tracks for cracks and fractures. They were also to buy two Wheel Impact Load Detectors WILD. The need for WILD became urgent after hundreds of cracks were found on the Delhi-Ambala track. These had been caused by a flat wheel.

Today the Railways have only two SPURT cars at their disposal to examine the tracks throughout the country and they do not have a single WILD. Sources in the Railway Board said tenders had been called for purchase of SPURT cars but they were discharged without the Railways buying them. 8220;The Railways apparently gave faulty specifications. Now the RDSO at Lucknow which does reasearch for the Railways is working out fresh specifications,8221; an official said. Specifications are also being worked out for WILD.

The only positive step has been SAIL8217;s efforts to improve the quality of the rails manufactured by them. SAIL has reportedly installed an online ultrasonic flaw detection equipment and also introduced vacuum degassing to prevent hydrogen intrusion in the rails.

8220;While other organisations might be sensitive to introducing safety measures, the Railways seem to have developed a thick skin and nothing seems to affect them,8221; the official added.