Railway Accident in North Bengal: Profit Gets Precedence Over Safety

On 13th January 2022 at around 5P.M, the Bikaner Express, running from Bikaner to Guwahati via Patna, derailed between the New Domohani and New Maynaguri stations in North Bengal, killing 9 passengers and injuring 40 which include critically wounded passengers. The gruesome pictures of 12 mangled coaches mounting on top of each other indicate complete failure of safety ecosystem in railways.

The fatal accident took place in the jurisdiction of Alipurdwar division of North-east Frontier Railway where a new double line was very recently laid in order to facilitate the movement of freight traffic as well as passenger services, keeping in view the Tea, Oil and Coal industries in upper Assam. The needle of suspicion points to the track geometry of new track laid in 2019. However, there was much debate and discussion in the media to locate the cause of derailment. It does not stand to reason to make the driver of the train as a scapegoat with allegation of criminal offences, suppressing the root cause of poor maintenance of track and locomotive, due to perennial shortage of staff. Huge vacancies in the category of ALP (Assistant Loco Pilot), Technicians and Trackmen, to the tune of approx. 30,000, exist in N.F. Railway only, putting not only extra load on workers but also compromising standard safety norms of maintenance schedule. Modi Government is bent upon corporatising the railways and handing over the profitable sections to the corporates. All powers are centralised in the PMO/NITI AYOG and the Railway Ministry has hardly any independent role in allocating necessary fund for the upkeep of the unprofitable railway zone. Here, profit gets precedence over safety, that is opposed to the concept of operating Mass Transport System on a no profit-no loss basis which is very much an integral part of social obligations of the government. Moreover, this government is very much reluctant to fully implement the recommendations and practical suggestions of the High Level Railway Safety Review Committee headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar. According to this committee's report, old ICF Coaches which are accident prone are to be replaced by the new LHB coaches of German technology now transferred to Kapurthala Coach Factory. The 12 coaches involved in the accident happened to be that of ICF’s poorly maintained old coaches, having no anti-climbing features resulting in coaches mounting on top of each other.

The railway minister was deputed by the Prime minister to conduct an enquiry, on the spot, into the causes of the accident. He rushed to the spot on the next day and pin-pointed the equipment failure of the engine as a prima-facie cause for derailment whereas the driver disputed and said that the defect lies in the track, not in the engine, as alleged. The traction Motors that were seen hanging were supposed to be the repercussion of the derailment, caused by the defective track parameters, as opined by the locomotive engineers of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works where the WAP 4 engine was manufactured. Therefore, it is established beyond doubt that rail facture or weld failure to be the primary cause for derailment and consequently dislodging the traction motor fitted undercarriage, only as an after effect. It is now abundantly clear that due to shortage of staff, winter patrolling and USFD (Ultrasound Flaw Detection) testing to detect rail/weld failure (fracture) had been highly irregular in that section of the NF railway. Moreover, laymen and unskilled cheap labourers were engaged by contractors for such a work of immense safety. Around a lakh of safety related posts, including Trackmen posts, are still lying vacant in railways. Many a safety posts have been outsourced to outside agencies having no knowledge of any safe working conditions in railways.

The North East region is being propped up by the BJP/RSS as an hinterland for unhindered entry of the corporate capital and corporate honchos like Tata Projects Ltd, L&T, KEC International, etc., bagged lucrative contracts. A huge amount of fund was allocated for several railway projects in that region. A double line was laid in 2019 in the section on the newly constructed Up line at Domohani in Alipurdwar Division where the accident took place. The electrification Project for a total distance of 649 route KM (RKM), from Katihar to Guwahati, the gateway to the North East region was completed in 2021. It was done in a hurry to win elections in various states in the region and consequently, corresponding infrastructure for the maintenance of electric locomotives was not completed. Only a make-shift arrangement was made in the already existing Diesel Shed. In the event of non-functioning of any locomotive, it could have very well been attended and rectified, had there been a full-fledged electric locomotive maintenance shed.

With the abolition of an exclusive budget for railways, every financial aspect and fund allocation for railways is being monitored only by the General Budget mechanism and the provision of funds for railways is vetted by the PMO and the NITI Aayog. Therefore, the fund for railways is allocated on the basis of political considerations alone sans the legitimate requirements of the sector. Thus, such a poor fund allocation for railway maintenance and safety is bound to make the railway journey much more hazardous in the days to come.

The fatal accident points to the inherent weaknesses and imbalances in the system generated by the macro policies being pursued by the Railway Ministry from time to time. The Modi led BJP government cannot disown the responsibility for jeopardizing the lives of millions of rail-users, particularly the low paid workers, who are constrained to travel extensively across the country to earn their bread and butter. In the abovesaid accident too, 70% of victims belong to the category of low paid workers. Only by ending the cruel corporate loot being resorted to in the form of mega contracts, outsourcing and contractorization, only by providing adequate investment for building and strengthening safety infrastructure, only by filling up more than a lakh of safety related posts that are lying vacant, one can think of saving the most important public transport system like Indian Railways from an imminent collapse and certainly not through privatisation and corporatisation.