The Odisha train mishap, one of the worst accidents in India’s history, is a national shame, exposing the hollowness of the government’s claim of safety record. The heart-wrenching tragedy near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district involving three trains – two passenger trains going in opposite directions, and a stationary goods train -has claimed over 290 lives and left more than 800 people injured. While a full investigation into the accident is underway, prima facie, a signaling error, which led the Coromandel Express to swerve off its designated track and ram a stationary goods train from behind, seems to be the culprit.
There is always a sense of déjà vu surrounding train accidents in India that occur with depressing regularity, followed by ritualistic announcements of compensation and inquiry. The death toll is reduced to cold statistics and then it becomes business as usual. The latest tragedy raises questions over the pace of adoption of anti-collision technology -Kavach – by the Indian Railways. This Automatic Railway Protection (ARP) system was unveiled in 2012 but its adoption has been excruciatingly slow due to inadequate funding over the years. The Kavach system is not available on the Balasore route. So far, only 1,445 km stretch has been fitted with the ARP and work is on to cover another 3,000 km. The allocation for Kavach system in the 2023-24 Budget was around Rs 1,000 crore, covering the Delhi- Mumbai route. Given the total length of 1.08 lakh km, it will take at least 40 years for the railways to cover the entire country. The government needs to provide more fund to cover major section under the Kavach system.