Opinion Odisha train tragedy: For greater safety, decongest rail routes

Alok Kumar Verma writes: Track, electrical, and signaling infrastructure maintenance and fault diagnosis have suffered because of the severe congestion on Indian Railways' main trunk routes

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Rescue and relief personnel at the site of Friday’s railway accident near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district on Saturday. (PTI)

Alok Kumar Verma

June 5, 2023 09:20 AM IST First published on: Jun 4, 2023 at 07:13 PM IST

The collision in Balasore, Odisha, on June 2, between two express passenger trains and a stopped freight train, is perhaps the deadliest train accident on record in the last 20 years. It resulted in 275 fatalities, according to the most recent official statistics, and more than 1,000 injuries. The last train accident with so many fatalities occurred in Tanzania on June 24, 2002, when a passenger train and a freight train collided on a hill railway, leaving 281 people dead.

The seriousness of the rail safety situation in India can be understood by considering the following facts. Accidents involving passenger trains are extremely uncommon in countries with developed railway systems like Japan, China, Turkey, and several European nations like France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In these railways, most passenger trains travel at a maximum speed of 200–350 kmph, clocking an average speed of 150–250 kmph, which is three to five times faster than the speed in India, which is roughly 50 kmph. Despite the slow speed of trains, fatal train accidents happen frequently in India. India would probably place slightly higher than Egypt, Mexico, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Pakistan if a ranking of the world’s major railways were to be made based on safety performance.

To compete effectively with the rapid technological developments in air and road transport, through safer and faster train travel, developed nations’ railways have been expanding and modernising their existing rail networks since the 1970s. Because of its similar geographic size and population, China is a good comparison for India. The total length of China’s rail network in 1950 (21,800 km) was less than half that of India (53,596 km). India’s total route length (62,900 km) was surpassed by China (66,000 km) by 1997. Currently, China’s total route length (1,55,000 km) exceeds India’s (68,100 km) by more than twofold.

China upgraded its network in roughly two phases. From 1995 to 2010, it focused on achieving speeds of 200–250 kmph on its pre-existing lines on its eight trunk routes, four horizontal and four vertical. Next, it constructed new lines that served as dedicated passenger lines for operational speeds of 200–250 kmph (high speed) and 300–350 kmph (ultra high speed). Currently, it is working on expanding the trunk routes to a total of 16 (8 verticals and 8 horizontals). By 2030, the total route length is planned to increase to 1,75,000 km, of which about 55,000 km will be high-speed and ultra-high-speed lines.

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Project Mission Raftar was announced by the Indian Railway Board in 2017–18 with the goal of doubling the average speed of freight trains from 25 kmph to 50 kmph and achieving a 50 per cent increase in passenger train speed from 50 kmph to 75 kmph in five years. But, as the CAG of India noted in its report, the plan did not result in any speed increase. Unlike China, India did not build new dual track lines along the major trunk routes, notably the quadrilateral, and its diagonals that connect Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

The severe congestion on Indian Railways’ main trunk routes is the primary factor contributing to the trains’ stagnant speeds and their subpar safety record. Over the past 20 years, rail has consistently lost market share to the competition from air and road transportation. As capacity utilisation on about 10,000 km of the Railway Board’s trunk routes exceeds 125 per cent, congestion has been repeatedly brought up. Track, electrical, and signaling infrastructure maintenance and fault diagnosis have suffered because of this severe congestion. Another result is a lack of punctuality, which has a negative impact on safety due to the overworked drivers, station masters, and trackmen.

Relatives identify photos of passengers displayed by the authorities following Friday’s accident involving three trains, at NOCCI Business Park in Balasore district. (PTI)

In 2005, the Railway Board decided to build two dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) with a combined route length of 2,843 km, with plans to build three more in the future. These DFCs are still incomplete and may take 2 to 4 more years. Perhaps realising the inadvisability of building dedicated freight lines instead of dedicated passenger lines, the Railway Board seems to have deferred the plan to build more DFCs.

In 2017, India began construction of a standalone ultra-high speed (Bullet Train) line on the Standard Gauge between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for scores of more such lines were prepared. According to the most recent unofficial estimates, this line will cost an absurd Rs 350 crore per km, which is about 10 times as much as a 160 kmph semi-highspeed line and seven times as much as a 200–250 kmph high speed line. While the progress of construction of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train line is slow, the plan to build more bullet train lines is also in the doldrums.

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Considering the predominantly flat terrain on the trunk routes of India and the significant advantages of the broader Indian Broad Gauge for this flat terrain of soft alluvial soils, India should build 200–250 kmph high-speed lines. The total cost of upgrading 15,000 km of the existing trunk routes to 160–200 kmph and building 10,000 km of high speed Broad Gauge lines is expected to be about Rs 7 lakh crore. This can be done in 15 years, and the expanded and upgraded network will have sufficient capacity to meet the requirements of both passenger and freight traffic until 2060–2070 with ensured safety and punctuality. Rail will thus be able to reclaim its role as the lifeline of India’s transportation.

The writer has worked in the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE)