In this episode of The Editorial, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses railway infrastructure and train accidents. Data shared by the Indian Railways reveals that over the last five years, 351 people died and 970 were injured in 200 consequential railway accidents.
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[00:00:00] Namaskar! Welcome to another episode of editorial. Well, 351 people died in railway accidents in the last 5 years. 900 people injured and there has been more than 200 consequential railway accidents in the last 5 years. And we are soon going to have bullet train.
[00:00:29] Let's talk about it. Let's get right into the show.
[00:00:36] You know, what happens if we build a 200 storied building but in 200 storied building there is no foundation. No foundation but 200 storied building. The point is the building will collapse.
[00:00:59] And you know who builds these kind of building?
[00:01:02] These kind of buildings are built to show people instead of ensuring that people can stay in it safely.
[00:01:08] These buildings are meant to show off. They are for short durations. They are made for filmy sets and all that.
[00:01:16] It is not really meant for people to stay. The difference, the point that I am trying to make is most of the so-called infrastructure that we are trying to build for our country.
[00:01:26] We have seen bridges collapse left, right and centre. We have seen roads having cracks. We have seen airport leak.
[00:01:39] The point is something is wrong with our foundation and we are building buildings.
[00:01:46] I am going to talk to you about a very specific topic. The specific topic that I want to talk to you today is that of Indian railways.
[00:01:56] We seem to be launching a train every day. Every day our good Prime Minister is seen with a flag launching a new train almost.
[00:02:06] But at the end of the day what is happening? What is happening is in the last 5 years we had 200 consequential accidents.
[00:02:17] We had close to like I told you 351 deaths, 900 injured in the last 5 years.
[00:02:25] We are doing a train launch but nothing to do with safety. We are doing nothing for the safety of our passengers or of our train.
[00:02:36] Like our airports are collapsing, our trains are meeting with accidents. Do you see a link?
[00:02:43] Do you see a link? Let me give you some figures. You see, the core reason what experts say is,
[00:02:53] the core reason for such accidents is not just because of act of God or something. The core reason for the accidents are lack of infrastructure, outdated infrastructure.
[00:03:05] In fact, according to a report, derailments have occurred due to poor track maintenance, overcrowding, operational errors,
[00:03:13] outdated signalling systems, human errors, etc.
[00:03:16] That is why we are having accidents. That is why derailment has happened.
[00:03:21] Another problem has been of warped priorities. Warped priorities. Are we giving enough money to Kavach?
[00:03:32] Are we giving enough money to safety? Are we putting enough money into safety, into railway safety? No.
[00:03:38] How can we? We have to pay no freebies we have to do. No.
[00:03:42] So our money goes into freebies. Where is the money going for safety? Where is Kavach? The Kavach that was supposed to protect us when we were travelling in the Indian railways.
[00:03:55] Where is that Kavach? Kavach gone. Kavach has not yet happened to every train. Accidents keep on happening.
[00:04:04] So lack of infrastructure, lack of priority to ensure that life has to be saved. Lives have to be saved is possibly,
[00:04:16] according to a lot of experts, the reason why our railway, which is actually our life support railway is the life of India.
[00:04:25] We are not people who can afford to fly all over the place. We use rail and our lifeline is affected.
[00:04:32] Now, a couple of points that I want to add on is that railway, unlike before has been creating revenues. So it is not that railway is in losses.
[00:04:44] The railway revenue in 2023, 2022, 2023, my apologies, was 1.2 lakh crore. The track renewal spending in that year was 13.5% of the revenue only.
[00:05:00] So while railway is earning revenue, so we are not saying subsidised railway or take money from somewhere else and put it into railways.
[00:05:08] While railway is earning money, the most important thing that is renewal of our tracks, that is repairing of our tracks, only 13.5% of our total revenue was spent on repairing of the tracks.
[00:05:21] This is the lack of priority that we have for our safety.
[00:05:25] You see, I will give you some more details. In financial year 24, the total railway revenue rose to 1.5 lakh crores.
[00:05:35] But spending on track renewal dropped to 11% of the revenue. So revenue rose from 1.2 lakh crores to 1.5 lakh crores.
[00:05:48] Instead of repairing tracks and ensuring that the basic railway line, which is the basic infrastructure, is put into place, the spending on tracks came down.
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[00:07:09] So, this is the point that I am trying to make here.
[00:07:13] Now, let me also give you some kind of an understanding.
[00:07:19] You know, in Japan for instance, in Japan we are talking, we are Vikasid Bharat, we are developed Bharat,
[00:07:28] we are going to get bullet trains like Japan, we are going to be very developed.
[00:07:33] So, we should then compare ourselves with Japan, shouldn't we?
[00:07:36] In Japan, let me tell you in 2024, the train derailment was just two.
[00:07:41] Just two train derailment.
[00:07:43] You know, the accidents that actually happened, there was zero accidents.
[00:07:48] The accidents that actually happened were human errors.
[00:07:52] Level crossing, which is the train, you know, gets struck by a train and all that.
[00:07:58] There was no technical train accidents at all in Japan.
[00:08:03] There was no train accidents.
[00:08:05] That is the country that runs bullet train.
[00:08:07] And we say, we will do it.
[00:08:10] We will do it.
[00:08:13] Every time we create infrastructure, we announce infrastructure, we inaugurate infrastructure
[00:08:22] before even basically trying to put a basic foundation in place.
[00:08:28] The point I am trying to make and a very simple point to that is that, you know, you can't be symbolic all the time.
[00:08:40] You can't be doing development.
[00:08:44] You can't be doing welfare.
[00:08:47] You can't be doing growth infrastructure for the cameras.
[00:08:52] You can't be doing that for all the time.
[00:08:54] At times, you really need to understand that these infrastructure has to be built on a proper foundation.
[00:09:02] These infrastructure when you are building needs to be long lasting because it involves taxpayers money.
[00:09:08] And most importantly, it involves Indian life.
[00:09:12] Somewhere down the line, that is something that we take so easily and cheaply.
[00:09:17] The accidents that are occurring 205 years are a clear indication of the fact that our focus is not on safety of people.
[00:09:31] Our focus, unfortunately, unfortunately, has been on just ensuring that every second day there is a television crew who covers a launch of a train or there is a headline which says that India to have bullet train soon.
[00:09:47] This is the point I wanted to make.
[00:09:49] Till I see you next time.
[00:09:50] That's tomorrow at 10.
[00:09:51] Namaskar.
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