Odisha train tragedy: Derailment warning sounded out in Dec goes unheeded. Disaster returns in its worst form

The horrific three-train collision in Odisha's Balasore late on June 2 shook the country. Since then, heartbreaking visuals have been shown on news channels and social media, and updates on deaths and casualties are slowly pouring in. Ministers and top officials have visited the site, and there will be an investigation. But the one question that’s on everyone’s mind is -- could this have been averted?

There were warnings and signs. Did we ignore them?

On December 21, 2022 less than six months before this accident, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) tabled its report on ‘Derailment in Indian Railways (IR)’ in Parliament, which states that almost seven out of 10 railway accidents between 2017-18 and 2020-21 were derailments. Track defects, engineering and maintenance issues, and operating errors were the causes of these derailments, the report said.

The report also said that the overall allotment of funds for track renewal had been on the decline, and even the funds that were allocated were not utilised completely. This is alarming given that the report also states that 26 percent of the total derailments during 2017-21 were linked to track renewals.

"IR should strive to achieve a robust safety management system that would enable the creation of a system of checks and balances whereby the existence of proper control in one or more of the barriers would minimise the chances of accidents due to ‘failure of’ or ‘weakness in’ one or more of the remaining barriers," CAG had recommended.

What’s causing it?

CAG conducted an analysis of 1,129 ‘inquiry reports’, which account for 81 per cent of the 1,392 derailment accidents.

The audit revealed that 23 factors were responsible for derailments in the 1,129 selected cases. Of these, a maximum of 395 were due to issues that fell under the engineering department. The other factors accounting for derailments fell under the operating department (261), mechanical department (173), signalling department (27), and electrical department (10). Human error was the major factor responsible for derailments attributable to Loco Pilots, which stood at 149.

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A more granular break-up of the 23 factors responsible for the 1,129 cases of derailment revealed that the major cause was related to the maintenance of track, deviation of track parameters beyond permissible limits, and bad driving or overspeeding.

Safety corpus objective defeated

India set up a safety fund, namely ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh’ (RRSK), in 2017-18 with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to be spent over a period of five years for critical safety-related works. An annual contribution of Rs 15,000 crore from gross budgetary support and Rs 5,000 crore from the internal resources of IR were the sources of funds of RRSK.

The audit noted that the gross budgetary support of Rs 15,000 crore had been contributed. However, the actual generation of internal resources by IR for the remaining funding of Rs 5,000 crore per year to RRSK fell short of the target during the years 2017-18 to 2020-21.

"Thus, the short deployment of funds by Railways from internal resources to the tune of Rs 15,775 crore (78.88 percent) out of the total share of Rs 20,000 crore had defeated the primary objective of the creation of RRSK to support absolute safety in Railways," CAG said.

Prior to the setting up of this fund, IR’s safety-related projects were funded through the Railway Safety Fund, which was financed by the Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF).

CAG’s analysis of the RRSK funds revealed that the spending on the so-called ‘Priority-I’ works (including major civil engineering works and level crossing infrastructure) had declined from 81.55 percent in 2017-18 to 73.76 percent in 2019-20. The allotment of funds for track renewal too fell, and the funds allocated for it were also not fully utilised.

In its report, CAG suggested that IR ensure strict adherence to the scheduled timelines for conducting and finalising accident inquiries.

The final report on the Odisha train accident is awaited, and only that can explain the cause(s) for the devastating collision of three trains.