Seeking light at end of this tunnel

NOVEMBER 26, 1998, KHANNA: Jammu-Sealdah Express rams into derailed coaches of the Golden Temple Frontier Mail, killing 220 passengers. Judicial inquiry is ordered, to be conducted by Justice G C Garg
Recommendation: Inquiry, supposed to be completed in four months, still on after six years
Status: Railways is losing Rs 2 lakh every month just on the probe

AUGUST 2, 1999, GAISAL: Brahmaputra Mail collides head on with Awadh-Assam Express, killing 310 passengers
Recommendation: Justice G.N. Ray committee blames railway staff, including the Divisional Railway Manager (Katihar), Divisional Signals Engineer and Senior Divisional Safety Officer
Status: No action taken against the erring officials

DECEMBER 2, 2000, SARAI BANJARA: Amritsar Mail collides with a derailed goods train, killing 52 people. Inquiry under Justice Sagir Ahmad ordered
Recommendation: Ahmad yet to submit his report. However, CRS had hinted at defective coupling, and said the accident could have been averted if goods train’s flasher lights been switched on
Status: Report awaited

JUNE 22, 2001, KOZHIKODE: Six coaches of Mangalore-Madras Mail fall into Kadalundi river as one of the piers of the bridge collapses, killing 51
Recommendation: CRS conducts inquiry, blames condition of the bridge, points out a report of Bridge Rehabilitation Committee, 1989, to replace old bridges, including this one, was ignored
Status: The Railways are making a parallel bridge

SEPTEMBER 9, 2002, RAFIGANJ: Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani derails and plunges into Dhave river in Aurangabad, killing over 100 people
Recommendation: The CRS probe attributes the accident to sabotage and removal of track by unknown persons, suggests better patrolling
Status: Anybody’s guess

MAY 15, 2003, LADOWAL: Three coaches of Frontier Mail catch fire, killing 38 people
Recommendation: The CRS does everything, including simulate the fire, to conclude that the accident was caused by an unknown person who might have been carrying some incendiary item
Status: Railways point out passengers have always been banned from carrying any incendiary item

JUNE 22, 2003, KONKAN: Karwar-Mumbai Holiday Special derails after hitting a boulder, killing 53 passengers
Recommendation: The CRS blames landslide, asking for safety measures, including netting of mountain cutting more than 10 m high
Status: Done but proves inadequate, as a repeat incident, almost exactly one year later, kills 14 on the same stretch on June 16, 2004

JULY 3, 2003, WARANGAL: An engine and two coaches of the Golconda Express jump the track and fall off a road-over-bridge, killing 18
Recommendation: The CRS inquiry observes that some lives could have been saved if the Accident Relief Train had reached the site sooner and also, if it had been equipped with gas cutters. The accident is immortalised by the face of a railway employee—stuck inside a coach—who bleeds to death.
Status: Railways are in the process of modernising their ARTs and equipping them with gas cutters and other instruments