Railway has always been a medium of economic growth of a country, as it enables movement of both goods and passengers, and promotes trade and industrial development. In India, Ministry of Railways owns and operates the railway network. Despite all the efforts, there have been incidents of derailment, fire and collisions resulting in injuries and death, which raises questions on the safety standards provided by the ministry.
Some of the safety issues faced by Indian railways include poor infrastructure, lack of resources, funding, and negligence. With the rise in the number of passengers, the load on the infrastructure has increased to a great extent. The capacity of trains is unable to meet the high demand. There has been low funding by the …show more content…
Lack of technology and shortage of manpower increases the chances of human errors. While the frontline staff in the Indian Railways is properly trained and monitored, the staff involved with management is hardly kept an eye on, therefore, an unskilled labor force along with no or bare minimum monitoring, increases the chance of deadly accidents. In December 2004, there was a head on collision of two trains between Bhangala and Mirthal stations, due to miscommunication by two station masters. And In May 2005, there was a major fire incident in a train between Markundi and Takariya station, caused due to the mal functioning of auxiliary rectifier-cum-regulator panel which spread to all the train coaches due to the inefficiency of the crew to detect and cure the spot of occurrence of …show more content…
Renewal or replacement of the damaged railway track or those tracks that cannot be fixed should be done at the latest. Also, introduction of new and improved technology for welding, signaling, mechanized maintenance, smoke and fire detection system is needed. There should be provisions of thick web switches and weld able CMS crossing. Proper training should be imparted to the crew so that the human errors can be avoided. For keeping a check on the crew members, CCTV camera should be installed and kept under surveillance 24/7. In case the train catches fire, a system of alarm should be made such that it automatically stops the train and also reports the area affected so that it’s easy for the passengers to move out and also for the crew to detect the coach or area where the fire erupted. Also, a censor should be attached to the trains which can detect if another train is running on the same track within 20 km and can get trains to a halt, so that collisions could be avoided (the technology used in Delhi Metro for keeping a track of the distance between two consecutive trains could be used
Some of the safety issues faced by Indian railways include poor infrastructure, lack of resources, funding, and negligence. With the rise in the number of passengers, the load on the infrastructure has increased to a great extent. The capacity of trains is unable to meet the high demand. There has been low funding by the …show more content…
Lack of technology and shortage of manpower increases the chances of human errors. While the frontline staff in the Indian Railways is properly trained and monitored, the staff involved with management is hardly kept an eye on, therefore, an unskilled labor force along with no or bare minimum monitoring, increases the chance of deadly accidents. In December 2004, there was a head on collision of two trains between Bhangala and Mirthal stations, due to miscommunication by two station masters. And In May 2005, there was a major fire incident in a train between Markundi and Takariya station, caused due to the mal functioning of auxiliary rectifier-cum-regulator panel which spread to all the train coaches due to the inefficiency of the crew to detect and cure the spot of occurrence of …show more content…
Renewal or replacement of the damaged railway track or those tracks that cannot be fixed should be done at the latest. Also, introduction of new and improved technology for welding, signaling, mechanized maintenance, smoke and fire detection system is needed. There should be provisions of thick web switches and weld able CMS crossing. Proper training should be imparted to the crew so that the human errors can be avoided. For keeping a check on the crew members, CCTV camera should be installed and kept under surveillance 24/7. In case the train catches fire, a system of alarm should be made such that it automatically stops the train and also reports the area affected so that it’s easy for the passengers to move out and also for the crew to detect the coach or area where the fire erupted. Also, a censor should be attached to the trains which can detect if another train is running on the same track within 20 km and can get trains to a halt, so that collisions could be avoided (the technology used in Delhi Metro for keeping a track of the distance between two consecutive trains could be used