Click to play videoNew Delhi: 176 and counting. The total number of train accidents in the last year is a statistic that's likely to drive Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to keep safety and security of trains on high priority this Rail Budget as well.
A derailment in Orissa killed 15 and injured 60 people in February this year. Around the same time, former Railway minister Lalu Prasad hoped to ride the popular sentiment after a spate of terror attacks, by making both safety and security the highlights of his interim budget.
But despite the hefty investments, ground reality is still the same. The waiting list of sanctioned projects expected to make rail travel secure is growing longer.
The anti-collision device, already in use by the Konkan Railways and one that prevents trains from coming on to same tracks or in the case they do automatically stops them, is only expected to be introduced by the Railways by 2013.
Mamata Banerjee will also have to shell out more for overhauling old and defunct Railway assets.
Over 50 per cent of accidents take place on unmanned railway crossings. Better management of level crossings has been on every Railway minister’s agenda but without much progress.
Also, a mass recruitment drive to fill 5,000 vacant posts of the Railway Protection Force needs to be expedited.
“More vehicles, walkie talkies, wireless sets to RPF to improve their efficiency is required. CCTVs at stations should be installed. Even now there are important stations where cameras are not functioning,” former chairman of the Railway Board RP Batra said.
The Samjhauta train blasts along with the Mumbai train blasts have ensured that Railways can no longer take their security for granted. The New Delhi railway station is one of the few railway stations in the country with a heavy deployment of security personnel and elaborate baggage screening. But lakhs of smaller stations across the country still lack these basic security arrangements.
And till some of these concerns are addressed, a safe, secure and modern railway network is still some distance away.
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