on Nov 20 at Kanpur rural area in which more than 120 railway passengers have been killed and more than 200 injured. It appears to be a case of rail track fracture which remained undetected by the regular patrolling rail employees on duty. (In the meantime, in another rail accident on the same day at 2 am, 12 passengers were injured near Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar, involving Bhatinda- Jodhpur passenger train).
Indian Railways (IR) is one of the world’s largest railway net works, comprising of 1,15,000 km of track over a route of 67,312 km & 7,112 railway stations that covers almost every nook and cranny with over 13 lakh rail employees working in shifts round the clock in 16 rail zones/divisions. IR runs 11, 000 trains every day, out of which 7,000 are passengers trains and carries over 23 million passengers every day. Only 1/3rd of rail routes are electrified (poor show!). However, the nation’s life line has a poor safety record. Dreaming to be a world-class elite with super and faster speed and cherishing to import bullet trains from Japan, it is ramshackle in the shambles.
Speaking about rail accidents, its state and rate is horrible. Due to very poor safety measures/precautions, disregarding its valued passengers, the rail accidents are on increase and 40 casualties on an average take place
every day due to accidents such as falling off from the over-crowded rail compartments, crossing railway tracks (though it is prohibitory), frequent derailments, head on collision (but very rare) and so on. One important factor noted about IR is that many frequent derailments take place in which innocent rail passengers, no faults of their’s, die/get killed. It is alleged that the rail tracks are old, outdated and rusted/rusty and not maintained properly and cracks/fractures on rail tracks remain undetected due to negligence on the part of patrolling rail employees. It is further noted that we never hear about derailment of trains in other nations, though some
stray cases of head on collision are reported.
The IR, therefore, should seek an expert advice/expertise & learn the technique from the rail engineers abroad to stop frequent derailments of Indian trains including goods trains which ( the latter) also suffer the same fate.
