Laloo Prasad Yadav now finds himself in the shoes of his bete noire, Nitish Kumar, who had a torrid time defending the safety record of the Indian Railways when he was its ministerial guardian. At one point, Nitish Kumar had to contend with six accidents in the short span of a couple of months. The tragic Matsyagandha Express disaster, which has just claimed 14 lives and left over 60 injured, should come as a reality check to the new incumbent at Railway Bhavan, who appears to be under the mistaken assumption that the Railways are nothing but a gargantuan gravy train; an endless source of political patronage.So a new mantra for the new mantri is really a very old one. For railway ministers, safety must be of paramount concern; a principle that can never be compromised upon. Everything else — whether it is kulhars for the tea service or khadi for the furnishings — must figure way down in the list of priorities, if they have to figure on it at all. And a safety regime, if it is to be effective, cannot be the result of knee-jerk responses. The Konkan Railway, under pressure because of the latest accident that has come almost exactly a year after the Karwar-Mumbai Holiday Special met with a similar fate, has quickly announced a slew of measures, including re-introducing a pilot engine before each passenger train to covering cuttings up to five metres on hilly terrain with a high strength steel mesh to tackle the problem of loose boulders rolling down on to the track.Sensible safety measures must necessarily be sustainable ones. For instance, whether the idea of a pilot engine is a feasible one needs to be thoroughly examined, especially since the Konkan Railways had actually introduced it at some point and then thought fit to withdraw it. There may be little point in going through that rigmarole all over again. Therefore, the authorities and the experts need to review the measures already in place and evolve a safety regime for a difficult terrain under indifferent and variable weather conditions. Managing this line during the months when the terrain is lashed by the monsoon is clearly a challenge that the Konkan Railway has not measured up to.
