Opinion Express View on Balasore accident: Getting back on track

Details of the devastating train accident in Balasore in Odisha are still emerging, and there is distance yet to cover to arrive at full clarity. The reports so far suggest that interlocking, a safety mechanism that ensures that trains move seamlessly and prevents accidents, was manually overridden. While the complete picture will emerge only after the Commissioner of Railway Safety submits the report, this horrific accident, which led to 275 dead and hundreds injured, should be the trigger for a wider institutional introspection and reckoning. There can be no debate about the need for a massive infrastructure upgrade of the Indian Railways, encompassing trains, tracks and stations, and it is also true that the task of modernisation is not a zero-sum game. And yet, this is a moment to ask questions.

Over the years, the Indian Railways has seen a dramatic increase in its capital outlays. As a consequence, unlike in the past, funding is now much less of a constraint. In this changed environment, it is not the financial but the capacity and human resource constraints that policymakers need to be mindful of in the attempt to reconfigure organisational priorities. A broader, more encompassing perspective is warranted. The newly launched Vande Bharat trains constitute a significant upgrade, send energising signals down the line, but the cold fact is they account for only a sliver, at the top, of the total trains running in a system that runs more than 13,000 passenger trains. Thus, the vast majority of the 25 million passengers who use the Railways to commute daily, who cram over-crowded “General” coaches, where infrastructure seems to be frozen in time, are yet to be significantly touched by the modernisation efforts. This horrific accident should serve as a wake-up call and a reminder to the system of those parts that are left out of the revamp and upgrade, the need for constant vigil on safety structures and processes that affect everyone.

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On various metrics, the performance of Railways, including its record on safety, has seen an improvement. For instance, the number of consequential train accidents has declined from 74 in 2017-18 to 20 in 2020-21. On other criteria, however, there is scope for improvement. As per a CAG report, between 2018-19 and 2019-20, the funds allocated for track renewal works were not fully utilised — out of 1,127 derailments during 2017-21, 289 were linked to track renewal. Old infrastructure needs to be upgraded and maintenance works need to be urgently carried out. The Railway Board has also recommended a CBI probe into the Balasore accident. This parallel investigation suggests the suspicion of criminal behaviour or intention on the part of individuals. Accountability needs to be fixed, heads need to roll, but the CBI probe should not become a pretext for the establishment to shy away from conducting a wider institutional review of the path to modernise Indian Railways.