8 days before Odisha accident, Railway board briefed on safety-first approach | Latest News India

Precisely eight days earlier than the Balasore accident involving three trains claimed 278 lives and have become one of many worst tragedies in rail historical past, officers of the railway board briefed the parliamentary standing committee on railways on security measures and warranted it that their “security first and security at all times’’ perspective had resulted in a decline in accidents from 141 in 2010-11 to simply 48 in 2022-23.

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The nationwide transporter showcased an index primarily based on the variety of accidents per million practice kilometres (AMTKs), which it mentioned fell from 0.14 in 2010-11 to 0.03 in 2022-23. The optimism of the officers of Indian Railways’ apex administration physique has left most of the committee members upset after the accident.

“The presentation was about how accidents are to be stopped in India,’’ mentioned Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane. “The official did such an attractive presentation. But when what they confirmed was appropriate, how may there be such an accident?’’

The assembly on Could 25 was attended by 21 of the 31 members of the standing committee. It lasted 75 minutes and was addressed by the director normal of security and different officers who made a powerpoint presentation, which has been reviewed by HT.

Within the presentation of six slides, the officers highlighted the work finished with signalling and anti-collision programs and numerous measures undertaken to keep away from derailment, all of which develop into related in gentle of Friday’s practice tragedy.

Whereas the Central Bureau of Investigation and Railways’ personal inquiry is but to get to the precise reason behind the accident, it’s believed to have been attributable to a malfunction of or interference with both a sign or an interconnection, or each, in line with a preliminary report.

Within the assembly, the officers advised the parliamentarians that as a way to keep away from collision, “Digital interlocking together with multi facet color gentle alerts has been offered at 6,396 stations out of 6, 506 stations on BG or broad gauge route,’’ in line with knowledge until March. Amongst different measures, additionally they mentioned the practice collision avoidance system, or Kawach, was offered on 1,465 route km out of the entire 65,141 route km.

Aam Aadmi Social gathering member of Parliament Sandeep Pathak tweeted a video quickly after the accident, describing how the MPs had been misled on the assembly. “I raised the problem within the final assembly that the federal government must focus way more on security. It’s extra focussed on exhibiting off. In 9 years, if they’ve solely coated 2% of the tracks with Kawach, then to finish it they may take greater than 400 years.”

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The agenda for the assembly was security, and there was no point out of employees scarcity and allocation of funds, points that had been repeatedly flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor Common of India and different parliamentary panels. The rail officers advised the MPs that that they had common footplate inspections, night time inspections and a continuing assessment of security efficiency at numerous ranges. Additionally they mentioned that entrance line employees had been continuously educated, together with utilizing simulators, to cut back human errors.