A horrific train derailment. Over 140 dead. Over 200 injured. Sadly, it’s a headline we’ve all seen before.
Outdated rail infrastructure, ignoring safety, trains filled beyond capacity, human error. The reasons vary but most train accidents in India are preventable.
Maybe it’s time to rethink how our rail networks are run. Since we love to compare ourselves to China, let’s look there.
In 1949, China had just 22,000 km of railways while India had over 50,000 km. But by 2009 China had 80,000 kms of railways, a growth of almost 400 percent. But India was stuck at 64,000 km, growing by just 7 percent in 60 years!
India lags behind in every comparison. Who spends more on railways annually? China! Whose trains run faster, much faster? China’s!
China, in 1991, converted its railway ministry into a regulator. Its railway officials were offered incentives to meet project deadlines, increase profits and, yup, improve safety. China Rail is one of the safest in the world and yet, one of the busiest.
But here in India, Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu’s spending plans on safety hasn’t got the finance ministry’s approval yet.
The bulk of India’s rail accidents take place because we have 6,000 unmanned level crossings, but for years we’ve done nothing about this.
Railway babus get promoted on the basis of ‘seniority’, not performance. That’s as sarkaari, as sarkaari gets. I’m not the biggest fan of capitalism, but surely performance must matter most!
Less government is your slogan Modi ji, free the Railways from red-tape. Our roads and expressways, airports, airlines have private companies running them, let that happen in the railways. It’s the only way to assure quality, efficiency, profit and yes, safety.
And none of this means exclusion. Rail travel can be subsidised for the poor and that subsidy can be passed on directly to the private rail companies!
We’re taught in school that India’s train network was the best in the world for a long time. Today, it’s not. And it’s costing hundreds of precious lives. Can you and I live with that?
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
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