Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu took several Rail Bhawan mandarins to task within hours of the latest tragedy on the tracks. Thirteen coaches of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed at Khatauli, near Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 23 people . A portion of the track had been disjointed and was being welded in order to be put back in place as part of ‘routine maintenance’. But no one bothered to put a traffic blockade in place, as required, and the welding could not be completed before the train passed through. A probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety may reveal whether this was a systemic communication failure or an instance of a casual approach to a task that needed to be done but could have waited if traffic blocks were not feasible that day. Reposing confidence in the inquiry process may appear difficult as the CRS is yet to conclude its investigation into one of the deadliest railway mishaps in the past decade: the Indore-Patna Express crash near Kanpur last November, that killed 152 passengers. That process may have been muddied by suggestions of sabotage, from the highest levels of government, and accountability is yet to be fixed. But in Khatauli, evidence is available of serious lapses, including an audio recording of railway officers conceding bungling over the maintenance work.
Two engineers have been suspended, another has been transferred, and three top officials, including a Railway Board member in charge of engineering and tracks, have been asked to go on leave as ‘exemplary punishment’. Action against Railway Board members is rare, and this sends out a strong signal. However, it is no substitute for a larger course correction. Nearly 70% of the 303 rail accidents reported between 2012-13 and 2015-16 were caused by carelessness of railway staff, which includes shortcuts in maintenance work and failure to heed safety norms. Derailments — often caused by defects in the tracks or the rolling stock — have been the second biggest reason for accidents and casualties over the past decade. The Railways has over 1.14 lakh km of tracks, but their renewal, the Ministry told the Parliamentary Committee on Railways, depends on the financial resources allotted in a given year rather than the length of tracks that need refreshing. The induction of coaches with anti-climbing features, that could minimise fatalities in incidents like Khatauli, remains far too sluggish. A five-year corporate safety plan, first announced in the Rail Budget for 2015-16, has been drafted, but is yet to be approved. Humans err, but when the system turns a blind eye to the obvious needs of a public utility, the wake-up call needs to go beyond rapping a few officers. As the Railways itself has said, unless operations are safe, there are no operations.
