One day has passed to the tragic derailment of Patna-Indore Express near to Kanpur. 120 people dwindled out of 2000 train passengers, because of sudden death. Many are severally injured and are admitted in nearby hospitals. All the chief political representatives have paid the condolences for this sudden unfortunate happening. The compensation has been announced and the matter has been taken into serious consideration for postmortems and inquiries.
The country has faced such kind of drastic train wreckage after 6 years. The last was in May 28, 2010 in Midnapur, Bengal. As per the kakdokar Committee report, special safety measures should have been taken into consideration. But, some surprising facts have appeared that, with keeping some recommended measures in mind, Patna-Indore Express could possibly have avoided such radical catastrophe.
After the last severe train collision of Gyaneshwari Express in West Bengal happened, a prominent decision was taken by railway ministry in the form of High-Level Safety Review Committee in the year 2011. The committee was constructed under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil kakodkar (nuclear scientist and former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission). In the report of 2012, submitted by the committee, several daunting facts were highlighted about the substandard performance of the Indian Railways. The facts mentioned the drawbacks like inadequate infrastructure, badly provided resources, the need of more empowerment at the functional section.
Summing up the entire concern, we have below key facts which should be taken into account for a durable repose:
- With introducing more trains on the dated railway tracks, the situations can get more unpleasant with the overuse. They need to be provided a considerable time for the maintenance.
- Also, maintenance yards are facing the muddle because of its limited capacity and with more number of trains appended each year. Thus, the schedule of maintenance is getting increasingly hectic.
- Major amount of corridors are in usage by Indian Railways beyond their set capacity.
- Because, there remains heavy rush of traffic and also the time is limited, they face hurdles in carrying out a set and systematic maintenance routine on trunk routes.
- The Railway unions are putting blames on low manpower problem in the way of its development.
Apart from them, the Kakodkar Committee had proposed several safety concerns like upgrading of signalling, the advancement of telecommunication and the Train Protection System, banishing of level crossings and introduction of safety architecture on the Indian Railways.
