Recent tragedies raise questions about how quickly Indian Railways adopts Kavach, a collision avoidance technology
Posted Date – Monday, 05/06/23 at 12:30pm
Recent tragedies raise questions about how quickly Indian Railways adopts Kavach, a collision avoidance technology
Hyderabad: The Odisha train accident, one of the worst in Indian history, was a national disgrace and exposed the hollowness of the government’s claimed safety record. A heart-wrenching tragedy near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district involving three trains – two passenger trains traveling in opposite directions and a stationary freight train – has claimed the lives of more than 290 people and injured more than 800 Injuried. While a full investigation into the accident is underway, on the face of it a signaling error that caused the Coromandel Express to veer off its designated track and crash into a stationary freight train from behind appears to be the culprit. With India’s often frustrating train accidents, followed by ceremonial compensation and investigative announcements, there’s always a sense of déjà vu. The death toll is reduced to cold statistics, and then business as usual. The latest tragedy has raised questions about how quickly Indian Railways will adopt the anti-collision technology (Kavach). The Automatic Rail Protection (ARP) system was launched in 2012, but adoption has been extremely slow due to years of underfunding. The Kavach system is not available on the Balasore route. So far, only 1,445 kilometers of road have been installed with ARP, and efforts are underway to cover another 3,000 kilometers. The 2023-24 Budget has allocated about Rs 100 crore for the Kavach system, covering the Delhi-Mumbai route. Based on a total length of 108,000 kilometers, it will take at least 40 years for the railway to cover the whole country.
The fourth largest network in the world, Indian Railways transports nearly 23 million passengers daily on more than 13,600 trains. Most accidents could have been avoided if railroads had paid enough attention to upgrading their infrastructure, such as track, signaling and sensing technologies that help prevent accidents. Derailments account for more than half of rail accidents, with civil engineering deficiencies to blame. The tracks are often old, overused and the infrastructure is poorly maintained. The Anil Kakodkar committee formed in 2011 to review rail safety paints a grim picture and recommends upgrading tracks, repairing bridges, removing level crossings and replacing old carriages with safer ones. The measures will cost Rs 1 trillion over five years to improve safety and overhaul railway infrastructure. It recommends switching from buses designed by Integral Coach Factory to buses designed by Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB), which are considered safer. According to the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) of India, the allocation for track renewal works fell from Rs 9,607.65 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 7,417 crore in 2019-20. Even these funds are underutilized. Of the 1,127 derailments in 2017-21, 289, or 26%, were related to track updates.
