The Indian Railways has been found remiss again. A deadly fire caused apparently by a short-circuit in a sleeper bogie of the Tamil Nadu Express as it hurtled through the night, spells more bad news for a railway network that is already plagued by a poor safety record. Negligent standards of electrical maintenance are what initial assessments point to. The Indian Railways’ manuals on fire safety have quite a detailed elaboration of the type of safeguards needed to counter fire accidents including those caused by electrical malfunctions. In fact, in the context of the Nellore accident, almost every one of the guidelines could form part of a checklist to assess the level of seriousness with which the Railways takes its duties and responsibilities on this front. Have there been periodic inspections to ensure that the rolling stock involved was protected against the risk of fire? Was availability of fire-fighting equipment on board ensured? Were staff trained to fight fires, and were any fire-fighting devices properly maintained? The list can go on. This is the fourth fire accident in the Indian Railways in the last two years. Given the number of fires that have hit the system over the years with devastating effect, one basic question remains: why aren’t fire extinguishers, secured suitably if needed, provided inside all bogies? Why isn’t smoke detection equipment installed in each bogie, aligned with sprinkler and other suitable dousing systems? Significantly, in the absence of such a built-in system to alert the train crew, it took a railway worker who watched the train pass to raise the alarm. It was following this that the train was stopped and the burning bogie detached to prevent the blaze from spreading. If the Railways hasn’t found it worth its while to go in for such safeguards on all its trains, now is surely the time to do so.
Modernisation is the mantra of the Railways but surely basic issues of safety in the current system need to be addressed immediately. Even the ambitious plan submitted earlier this year by the Expert Group for the modernisation of Indian Railways, that requires Rs.560,000 crore over the next five years, did not seem to have focussed adequately on the safety aspect. The need for modernisation and a technological upgrade of the system cannot be over-emphasised. But during that quest, safety should take a front seat. From engine and bogie redesign and retrofitting to organisational culture and training, the Indian Railways has to devise foolproof ways of dealing with fires and collisions — the prime causes of accidental death on the tracks. The safety of passengers cannot be an afterthought, a detail that comes at the end of a checklist.
Keywords: Indian Railways, railway safety, Tamil Nadu Express, train accident, Nellore railway station, Nellore train mishap, TN Express fire, fire accidents, passenger safety
Myself,a retired Govt.servant, till knowing about the instant train tragedy, was in opinion that train journey is safe than other mode of transport and prefer it for car to travel in night. We never comment upon the workforce which was the root cause for this incident, but blame the Government and the top brass. Do you know that the coach factory workers never respect their superiors and have scant respect for safety when these coaches are manufactured? They should atleast know their responsibility in this juncture and see that quality vehicle are produced. As a passenger, I have never seen a fire extinguisher, in the bogies. What is the use in having them at a place where they can not be used? Even some passengers know the place, how many of them know its use? Safety shall never be in the back seat. Money could never compensate human life and by announcing solatium every time, the Railway thinks that they can close the matter through money politics.
Time was when Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav was hailed as a successful minister for railways for bringing efficiency and for expanding the rail system. However, it would seem that his short-term successes were achieved by sacrificing safety on the railways by not paying sufficient attention to maintenance, repaairing the railway tracks, renewing rolling-stock etc.,
On can only hope that the bureaucrats of the Bharathiya Railway Board can stand up to their political masters instead of indulging in the incantations of 'yes minister' !
One more fire incident in the history of Railways portraying an inept condition of Indian Railways on the part of safety and security of passengers.Had the incident not been watched by railway worker the ablazing fire could have taken a heavy toll.We are preparing budget in billions for the modernisation of Indian Railways without taking into account the availability of basic security measures in the curent condition of railways.Fare paid by passengers to railways is not just for carrying the passenger to destination but for carrying safely.This is not a time for the Railways to ponder on the aftermath of the incident but to take proactive and concrete steps for the safety of passengers.
It is very common to say that stringent rules should implement after a train hazard regarding safety concerns.After a couple of days every one will forget this issue and set back to their works.We can't even blame the Railways since because the passengers who came from a remote background will supposed to carry fire items unknowingly and at times by any spark it catches fire.Hence the railways should take measures in order to control hazard item by not allowing into the trains.
Secondly,the Indian Railways should consider the passengers safety as first priority rather introducing schemes and filling their pockets.
If the railways or the government is really serious about safety of passengers, by this time it would have come out with measures to prevent recurrences of this nature. As usual compensation has been announced, enquiry ordered and trying to explore the chances of a blame game (on the possibilities of sabotage. This only goes to show that neither the department nor the government is interested in passengers' safety. Railways' take pride in optimisation of rakes - Cheran Express rake shared with Navajeevan Express and so on, but the issue is once Navajeevan express arrives at Chennai Central no maintenance is being done (inclusive of water filling at times) and the same rake proceeds to Coimbatore without any cleaning. There seems to be no relief at least in the near future, passengers have to be prepared to face situations of this nature.
There is a news about imminent cabinet shuffle. The first man to thrown out of the railways ministry is the useless railway minister.
In fact, both his mentor mamta and himself proved to be unlucky in this crucial ministry, which is the lifeline of india. Accidents after accidents during their tenure.
Both of them are like devil in the flesh.
PM, please get rid of the evil spirit engulfing the railways ministry.
Just like flights ,during the start of each railway journey
an safety demonstration be done in each compartment.
Shame shame this government is not doing anything for the people.
That is the reason more and more people want to go to foreign
country for job even though they are treated badly.
Quantitative Fire Modeling and Hazard Aanalysis Techniques have the
potential of providing significant cost savings. Alternative
protection strategies can be studied within the hazard analysis
framework to give the benefit-cost relation for each. In addition,
measures are evaluated as a system with their many interactions,
including the impact of both structure and contents. Providing these
alternatives promotes design flexibility which reduces redundancies
and cost without sacrificing safety. New technology can be evaluated
before it is brought into practice, thereby reducing the time lag
currently required for acceptance. Thus, quantitative hazard analysis
can be a powerful complement to existing passenger train fire
performance requirements and a useful tool in evaluating improvements
to them.
Fire modeling and hazard analysis techniques allow evaluation of a
range of design parameters, including material flammability, geometry,
fire detection, fire suppression, and evacuation, as well as design
tradeoffs which may arise from combinations of the parameters.
However, further tests and assessment are considered necessary to
evaluate the suitability of fire modeling and hazard analysis
techniques for application to typical passenger train fire scenarios.
Testing a range of materials according to HRR test methods will also
allow evaluation of the ability of a predictive fire model to
minimize, but not eliminate, the need for real-scale tests to assess
overall passenger train fire performance. Limited real-scale tests
may still be required to verify the accuracy of fire hazard analysis
calculations, particularly when dramatically new designs or materials
are incorporated into new passenger railway compartments.
HRR is defined as the amount of energy that a material produces while
burning and is considered to be a key indicator of fire performance.
For a given confined space, say a rail bogie interior, the air
temperature gets increased while HRR increases. Though passengers
travelling do not come into direct contact with the fire, they could
get injured by high temperatures, heat fluxes, smoke and gases emitted
by materials involved in the fire. Accordingly, the fire hazard to
passengers of these materials can be directly correlated to the HRR of
an actual fire. HRR and other data measurements generated from oxygen
consumption calorimeters (e.g., ConeCalorimeter) can be used as an
input to evaluate the contribution of a material's overall
contribution to the fire hazard in a particular railway bogie
application. Quantitative Fire Modeling and Hazard Aanalysis Techniques have the
potential of providing significant cost savings. Alternative
protection strategies can be studied within the hazard analysis
framework to give the benefit-cost relation for each. In addition,
measures are evaluated as a system with their many interactions,
including the impact of both structure and contents. Providing these
alternatives promotes design flexibility which reduces redundancies
and cost without sacrificing safety. New technology can be evaluated
before it is brought into practice, thereby reducing the time lag
currently required for acceptance. Thus, quantitative hazard analysis
can be a powerful complement to existing passenger train fire
performance requirements and a useful tool in evaluating improvements
to them. This alternative approach employs fire hazard assessment techniques,
using fire modeling based on test methods using Heat Release Rate
(HRR) data. These studies have concluded that the impact of material
interactions and changes in real-scale passenger vehicle interior
geometry are also critical factors to be evaluated in predicting
actual fire behavior and thus cannot be evaluated through small-scale
tests alone.
An extensive effort sponsored by the European Railway Research
Institute (ERRI) had been underway to relate small-scale and real-
scale fire performance using HRR and fire modeling.
To assess the feasibility of applying HRR test methods and fire
modeling and hazard analysis techniques to U.S. passenger trains, the
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center)
had developed a comprehensive three-phase fire safety research program
which was conducted by NIST.
This alternative approach employs fire hazard assessment techniques,
using fire modeling based on test methods using Heat Release Rate
(HRR) data. These studies have concluded that the impact of material
interactions and changes in real-scale passenger vehicle interior
geometry are also critical factors to be evaluated in predicting
actual fire behavior and thus cannot be evaluated through small-scale
tests alone.
An extensive effort sponsored by the European Railway Research
Institute (ERRI) had been underway to relate small-scale and real-
scale fire performance using HRR and fire modeling.
To assess the feasibility of applying HRR test methods and fire
modeling and hazard analysis techniques to U.S. passenger trains, the
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center)
had developed a comprehensive three-phase fire safety research program
which was conducted by NIST.
In U.S, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) had sponsored a
three-phase which was directed at providing the scientific basis for
using a systems approach to maintain and improve the level of
passenger train fire safety with a focus on the evaluation of rail car
interior materials.
U.S. and European approaches to passenger train fire safety were also
primarily on individual small-scale test methods to evaluate material
fire performance. Providentially a 1993 study by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), sponsored by the Federal
Railroad Administration (FRA) , concluded that an alternative approach
could provide a more credible and cost-effective means to predict the
fire performance of passenger train materials.
Indian Railways must embark on very comprehensive programmes with a
thrust to manage the following key missions-
eliminating bottlenecks on the rail network’s main routes,
taking into account the future volume of traffic, by constructing
additional main track, developing railway stations, modernising
automation and communications systems and carrying out other work
renewing rolling stock
ensuring the operational reliability and security of the
transportation process by reducing the depreciation of fixed assets,
increasing the reliability of equipment, devices and machinery and
ensuring that they meet modern standards
imparting to the railway infrastructure new performance and
operational characteristics by increasing its ability to handle heavy
freight trains and passenger trains travelling at faster speeds or
with new dimensions. The area of ‘security of transportation process’ includes ‘Fire
safety’ which is an area of particular interest for all types of
express and passenger trains as well as lightweight high-speed trains.
Indian Railways must chalk out a systems approach to fire safety that
will lead to safest rail car design and materials, detection as well
as suppression systems, passenger evacuation and their interaction.
There must be fire safety guidelines that recommend the use of
flammability and smoke emission test methods and performance criteria
for all types of rail bogies with specific criteria for design of
seats or berths, furnishings, flooring etc. It is high time for Indian
Railways to revisit the current guidelines for clamping more stringent
amendments.
Mr. Vedagiri has a good point. We need more, larger doors in each coach and
wider aisles. Passenger ought not to place their luggage in the aisles either.
Most importantly, we need larger (about 4 times) windows with no bars but either
full glass like in our AC coaches (you'll also need AC inside then), or glass shutters, plus hammers to smash open the windows in case of emergency. The glass is
special design which does not spread shards which could hurt someone when
broken.
All this is not science fiction but routine in pretty much every other country in the world. But in India, nothing is done because nobody who has any influence gives a damn about the lives of others, especially if the latter are poor.
This fundamental obssession with oneself and oneself alone is the reason why we
are still part of the Third World, whence we are unlikely to escape anytime soon.
Sir,
I would like to add the following to your very comprehensive editorial. First, Govt may consider using "fire-resistant" and "non-inflammable" materials, to the maximum extent, in construction of railway coaches. Second, in a coach containing 72 passengers, there are two exits at the two corners of the coach. There should be one more exit at the centre of the coach, to help avoid stampedes in times of emergency. Third, reduction in the general weight of the coaches and its doors which are not easy to open and close, maybe considered. Fourth, the existing opening at the coach doors are quite narrow and can be widened.
All this is happening because of sheer negligence of our Railway minister who is busy in Kolkata and has not even spent 10 days last month in his office in Delhi.
Dear Mamta Di, now whats your plan?? when IR needs money to improve its
condition, You removed Railway minister citing that he is putting extra
pressure on passengers.Now, as passengers are burning alive, what will
you do???? Just try to think beyond your Bengal.....
All the government officers from railway department along with the railway ministers should be taken for a jolly ride in a train with electrical short circuit, dripping water from ceiling and ill lit second class sleeper compartment to understand the value of a person's life. Only then they will understand that life is more precious, else they feel that by expressing grief and some amount of compensation everything in India can be compromised.
just mere giving a dialogue that we wish to look for modernization is not the
solution of current problems. the situation demands a better probe from the very
base level. we should have a proper management of services and staff of
maintenance section. yes true all this requires a lot of funds that solely can't be
collected as revenue from railways, it is the government that has to intervene to
build in infrastructure of railways. remember this is the best mode of transport in
india and even the most trusted one and if ministry takes active participation in
improvising it can pay back in terms of huge amount of revenue..
every solution has to be dealt with specific probe and solution. in case of fire
accidents we are forerunner across the world just because if you look at our
maintenance team they are hardly concerned of electric circuit inside the coaches.
fire extinguishers and fire alarms need to be uploaded in coaches and they need to
be checked before coach is despatched from yard.
Unlike passenger train coaches, sleeper coaches have only 4 doors, 2 pairs at both the ends. If a pair of additional doors are available at the middle like passenger trains, the escape route would be easy. As the population is increased, this method would even make easy at the time of boarding and enlight the coach when stopped at the time of halting at any staion. Railways should look into the matter. Also, for every bogie beside at each alarm handle a fire extinguisher has to be arranged. Smoke detectors at appropriate points to be installed and an alarm should go off when it detects smoke. Like in aircrafts, announcements should be made in the train at each major station the train halts educating the people what to do in case of emergency. Let railways increase the fairs, but should give top most priority to passengers safety. I have faith in the Railway Department that it would take appropriate measures in not allowing such incidences to take place in the future. Jai Hind.
It is usual for India to implement the precautionary measures after the incident happened really. Why can't our people come out of their comfort zone and do something useful in their work. Government should take stringent measures to avoid these kinds of incidents hereafter.
Also, government should have performance rating related concepts among govt employees to make the work style better.
It has been rightly pointed and elaborated by the editor that the safety of the passengers using Indian Railways is so compromised. The death of those 5 people is outcome of sheer ignorance towards safety and negligence is routine audit of the electrical circuits (if there are any).The worst thing about all the systems in Indian scenario is that everytime there needs to be a loss of innocent lives to take any concrete steps. And in most of the cases, the great leaders express grief, offer some compensation and the system continues in the haphazard state.
Such kind of railways incidents have become very frequent now-a-days.
I was very happy when Mr. Dinesh Trivedi has introduced the railway
budget for this financial year. In the budget he has given much
importance for increasing the safety of the passengers by introducing
the automatic-brake system in all the trains by making a very minimal
increase in the train fare. It is very unfortunate that he has been
removed from his office just to give an impression to the voters that
Trinmool Congress have affinity with the lower income group and will
not entertain any increase in fare. As everybody is aware that railway
is in financial crisis and no corporation can work efficiently without
financial resources and because of unavailibilty of the same the
safety is going to be compromised. The safety is going to be
deteriorated as the railway is in financial crunch.
The new TMC minister should consult with the high command of his part
and shouyld increase the minimal fare.
as long as foolish and naive ministers like Mamta Banerjee are their in
the system, who do not wish any improvement and upgradation in railways
and other such public sectors just to save their own vote banks, such
incidences are bound to happen. Railway is in such huge loss/debt and
selfish ministers like Mamta are not allowing government to increase
fair from almost a decade. How can railway upgrade itself with out any
fund or earning. Its time to act not think. Jai hind.
Like Mr Raja, who had to be removed from telecom ministry due to 2G scandal,Trinamul minister needs to be removed if safe travel in railways is to be introduced!
It's a bit surprising that railways have a guidelines & even if they, do they follow,implement,regulate & report. FUNNY.
I was in Chennai around Dec travelling to Coimbatore on Doronto. I got a shock of my life to see water dripping from ceiling 10 cms from a ceiling Light.I threatned the TTE of pulling the chain & not allowing the train to leave, so the Electrical staff came & assured nothing will happen. A Fully AC train travelling at over 120 KMPH, short circuit & the railway employee assuring me nothing will happen.
I asked him to turn off AC & Power supply to that part of ceiling.
After arriving in Coimbatore, I complained to Station master. But does anyone care. My friend left in the same train, same coach, back to chennai same day.
My house (Australia) has 3 smoke/fire alarm & even if i make dosa, it scream. In this tragedy. someone had to call railways to inform driver to stop train. FUNNY.
Passengers should not allow train to depart if they find something wrong.
Half-hearted measures and substandard operations are compelled by the decisions of the indian polity while expanding services. Without appropriate revenue generation, this makes an inward spiral on safety standards. Modernisation is sold on personal comfort basis by decorative appeal. When will the realisation come to equate it with quality of service dependent on hitech?
Railway minister being busy shadowing his party supremo has hardly any time to oversee the affairs of the railway ministry and officers remaining busy in daily inauguration ceremonies and attending innumerable committee members appointed for betterment of services related to railways officials have hardly any time left for their designated job.Situation being so it is no wonder accidents happen in regular intervals.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" Shakespearean Hamlet
quote comes readily to our mind talking of passenger safety record
of Indian railways. Passenger safety will continue to haunt the
railway users for time to come as the political party like TMC is
unlikely to think of larger interest of the country and will
continue to play destructive sickening cheap political maneuvers
with Congress helplessly a mute spectator. Indian democracy is in
peril, as Jefferson said "The democracy will cease to exist when
you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those
who would not."
The safety of people travelling in trains is unfortunately not a prioriry as far as the govts priorities are concerned. how can these things be allowed to happen. If all the safety equipment was in place and in working condition this disaster could have been averted. 560000 crores forecast to being spent to modernise trains. a significant
amount of these funds will end up in the pockets of the corrupt. the end result safety will be compromised again opening the doors for more repeats of the same.
As they say Peoples memory is very short...the peoples governments memory is also very short...the respect and responsibility for saving public life will be top priority only when the media keep reinforcing a recent tragedy but not after that...Recently i have seen the same thing thing in Bangalore Railways and Road Transport Bus Stand...they seem to have forgotten Mumbai attacks or the Bangalore own serial blasts that have happened not very long ago...
Once again safety is questioned in the indian railway system.It is very
much hurting that indian railway could not stop this kind of
accident.It should focus primarily on safety and then modernisation.It
should be funded by budget-allocation or by increasing ticket price.
IR's performance has deteriorated in safety and finacially. Putting in charge Mamta Didi, whose focus was West Bengal, rather than IR, and keeping it with TCP, because of PM Manmohan Singh's political compulsions, means that such tragedies unfortunately will continue. A populist Mamta Didi, whose moto is more subsidies in the name of the poor, who in practice are unable to get better services, because of inadequate resources in West Bengal and IR. Didi is politically astute, but economically naive. Such naivete means that IR's finacial performance and safety will deteriorate and West Bengal will continue to slide down in relative terms. It is true that CPM, as she says, had left West Bengal with unsustainable debt and a vey poor fiscal situation, but her policies are little different from CPM. She needs to showcase the human capital strengths of West Bengal to attract investment, uplift growth and thus increase the revenue base. IR, also, needs revenue growth.
Are installing and maintaining automatic fire extinguishing equipment
such a technological marvel that a nation that plans to send man to
Mars cannot afford ? Are temperature based sensors for fire detection
or smoke detectors that immediately stops the train or activates
water / foam based extinguishers so un-affordable that the Railways
is not able to harness them ? Should we need to blame the USA for
technology restrictions for such things when we have a great safety
record for our PSLV rockets that put satellites on different orbits ?
A country that has the capability to launch 'Chandrayaan' mission,
whose engineers and companies help create and maintain global banking
and other software based systems that are quite complicated than a
fire alarm based train control device - can this country not take
care of its ordinary citizens and ensure a safe travel ? If so, what
business has the govt in running a train business ?
Agreed to all . Without raising fares how you can generate such a huge money for safety . so We can do small steps by banning Gasoline and stoves inside train not overreacting by banning vendors . Vendors can be provided safety training .
FYI ...... In India there is no such a word called "Safety" .... Go and
ask any organization including the fire department, the equipments will
be rusty .... That's all I can say ...... we will only improve when
There is a last drop to drink water, when there is a last tree left and
when there is a last river to dry out .... That's India .... We are the
only generations in India who are literally raping this country.
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