Railway minister Mamata Banerjee needs to take out time from her preoccupation with West Bengal, “sabotage” and “conspiracy” theories and ensure that her ministry takes a hard look at the signalling aspect of Indian Railways, which is crucial for the safe running of trains.
As railway officials here indicated, while the railways does have signalling systems like the absolute block system and the automatic block system in place to avert train collisions, they are either not in use in all sections of India’s vast rail network or require upgradation to world-class standard.
Incidentally, despite the importance of signalling systems, the Railway Board, which formulates policy for the 15-lakh-strong organisation, doesn’t even have a post for member (signals). Instead, the member (electrical) deals with signals issues, too.
According to the railways, the absolute block system (ABS) is in place on the Bardhaman-Rampurhat section of the track where Monday’s collision occurred. The system ensures that when a train is occupying a section of track, no other train is allowed to enter that section.
Former Railway Board chairman Ramesh Chandra noted that Indian Railways has a “fail-safe” signalling system, and when such mishaps occur it is due to a “series of failures”. So, even if the ABS failed to prevent the Uttar Banga Express from ramming into the Vananchal Express, the locomotive driver and his assistant too appear to have failed.
The train guard, who in railway parlance is the “owner” of the train, also appeared to have failed as he is normally in constant touch with the locomotive driver throughout a train’s journey and can even apply the brakes when needed, said Mr Chandra.
Sainthia station, where the Uttar Banga Express hit the stationary Vananchal Express, also appears to have failed to avert the collision. As Mr Chandra noted, it is the duty of the station master to ensure that if there is already a train on a particular line at the station, the switching point behind it has to be “reversed” so that another train does not come onto the same track. Had this been done, the trains would not have collided, said Mr Chandra.
As for the controversial anti-collision device (ACD), which has its supporters as well as critics in Indian Railways, Mr Chandra wondered why the railways is not going ahead and using it. The ACD, developed by the Konkan Railway Corp. Ltd, was approved as a pilot project for use by the Northeast Frontier Railway a decade ago. Now the railways says that “revised specifications” for the device have been given which will be developed by KRCL.
Mr Chandra, however, wondered what is holding the railways back when it has already given an assurance to Parliament that the device would be put in place by 2013-14. The railways, however, wants to expand the use of this device only after a performance evaluation post the improved model.