Odisha train accident | Railway inquiry should have taken precedence before CBI probe, says expert

Rakesh Chopra, a former Member of the Indian Railway Board, expressed his reservations regarding the timing of the CBI inquiry. He believes that completing the commissioner for railway safety (CRS) inquiry should have taken precedence, as the results of such investigations have historically contributed to improving safety systems. While acknowledging the importance of a CBI inquiry, Chopra emphasised the need to prioritise the CRS inquiry and its timelines.

"I would have thought that the commissioner for railway safety inquiry should have been completed first. The railway minister did say that it is going to take a short time. The period for the preliminary report for the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS) inquiry is 10 days and the final report in 60 days. So we could have probably waited and then gone to the CBI. The CRS inquires and the results that come out have been helping the railways to improve the safety systems, so let us not undermine that. So CBI inquiry could have been done but the CRS inquiry should have been given predominance at least in the timelines," Chopra said.

Sandeep Pathak, a Rajya Sabha MP from the Aam Aadmi Party and Member of the Parliamentary Panel on Railways, highlighted the issue of railway safety from a broader perspective. Referring to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report of 2022, Pathak revealed alarming statistics, indicating that safety has not been a primary focus. He pointed out the inadequate coverage of anti-collision devices, such as the Kavach system, across the vast railway network. Pathak also emphasised the need for immediate action to address these critical safety concerns.

"If you look at the CAG report of 2022, you would see that from 2017 till 2021 there have been about 1,400 derailments and about 2,000 accidents. So it appears that the focus of the government has not been on the safety. There is a device called anti-collision device and which is the most critical part of any train system across the globe. In India also we have adopted this as it is very critical. So we have an anti-collision device called Kavach which was introduced during Mamata Banerjee's time, but out of the 65,000 kilometers of rail network only 1,400 kilometers was covered through this anti-collision devices which is less than 2 percent of the total network. In terms of number of trains covered by Kavach, only 65 trains have been covered out of around 22,000 trains. So the process of installing anti-collision devices appears to have got no focus," Pathak said.

Pathak further underscored the significance of advanced signalling systems in ensuring train safety. He said the CAG report highlights failures in the implementation of this critical technology, suggesting a need for prompt remedial measures. Pathak stressed that the government must allocate substantial funds to invest in anti-collision devices and other essential safety measures.

"The advanced signalling system is another critical thing. The CAG report highlights that the advanced signalling system is failing somewhere. So we should not be ignoring any issues with advanced signalling system and must take remedial steps immediately. Government also needs to invest a lot of money in anti-collision devices. So we need to invest a lot of money in these safety measures," Pathak said.