{"id":58957,"date":"2025-11-11T20:09:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=58957"},"modified":"2025-11-12T12:54:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:24:57","slug":"recurring-rail-tragedies-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-11-2025\/recurring-rail-tragedies-india","title":{"rendered":"Recurring Rail Tragedies in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Governance, GS3\/Infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India has witnessed a worrying recurrence of train accidents caused by technical failures &amp; human error in the recent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are the Major Causes of Accidents?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Staffing Shortages in Safety-Critical Roles: <\/strong>Out of the one million positions that are directly engaged in operations and maintenance, there are more than 1.5 lakh vacancies in safety\/operational posts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Infrastructure Constraint: <\/strong>Persistent concerns exist over delayed track renewal, outdated signalling systems, and frequent damage to signal and communication cables during maintenance and construction works \u2014 issues that the Railway Board has warned could have \u201ccatastrophic consequences.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Inadequate Safety Systems: <\/strong>Slow deployment means that most of the routes remain without a KAVACH, leaving them vulnerable to human-error or signalling failures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Human Error: <\/strong>It remains a key contributor like errors in signal setting, point switching, train control, fatigue due to long hours.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Resource Allocation Imbalance: <\/strong>The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) was instituted for safety upgrades, but utilisation has been uneven.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Organisational and Accountability Deficit:<\/strong> Fragmented chain of responsibility among zones, divisions, and departments. Post-accident inquiries often end with suspension of staff but not structural reform.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Implications<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Economic Impact: <\/strong>Train accidents cause direct loss of life, infrastructure damage, compensation burden, and service disruption.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Public Confidence:<\/strong> Repeated mishaps erode trust in public transport safety.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Governance Credibility:<\/strong> Reflects weak oversight, bureaucratic inertia, and reactive rather than preventive administration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Technological Lag: <\/strong>Highlights India\u2019s slow pace of safety technology adoption compared to global standards (e.g. Europe\u2019s ETCS or Japan\u2019s Shinkansen).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Related Government Measures and Initiatives<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>KAVACH:<\/strong> An <strong>Automatic Train Protection (ATP)<\/strong> system that halts trains automatically to prevent collisions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Introduction of Modern trains:<\/strong> To enhance passenger experience and provide a comfortable journey, State of the Art Vande Bharat trains, Amrit Bharat Trains and Namo Bharat Rapid Rail with modern features have been introduced on Indian Railways.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Elimination of level crossings:<\/strong> To improve safety of train operations and road users, all unmanned level crossings on Broad gauge have been eliminated.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/02-02-2023\/amrit-bharat-station-scheme\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/02-02-2023\/amrit-bharat-station-scheme\">Amrit Bharat Station Scheme<\/a>:<\/strong> It signifies a concerted effort by Indian Railways to modernize its infrastructure in order to elevate the travel experience for millions of passengers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK):<\/strong> \u20b91 lakh crore fund (2017\u20132022) for safety-related works \u2014 track renewal, bridge rehabilitation, signaling upgradation, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Railways need to accelerate the implementation of the Kavach system, apart from regular maintenance of tracks to avoid future accidents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is also an urgent need to expedite the installation of <strong>black-box-type devices <\/strong>across its locomotives to enable the voice and video recording of the train\u2019s crew member.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Do you Know?<\/strong><br>&#8211; Indian Railways, often called the <em>\u2018Lifeline of India\u2019<\/em>, is the <strong>fourth-largest rail network in the world<\/strong>, spanning nearly <strong>1,15,000 kilometres<\/strong>.<br>&#8211; Indian Railways is the <strong>eighth-largest commercial employer in the world, <\/strong>with <strong>over 12 lakh employees.<\/strong><br>&#8211; The <strong>Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation <\/strong>investigates accidents, but its reports are largely recommendatory, not binding.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/chhattisgarh\/chhattisgarh-bilaspur-train-accident-deaths-injuries-updates\/article70240039.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">India has witnessed a worrying recurrence of train accidents caused by technical failures &#038; human error in the recent.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the Major Causes of Accidents?<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Staffing Shortages in Safety-Critical Roles: Out of the one million positions that are directly engaged in operations and maintenance, there are more than 1.5 lakh vacancies in safety\/operational posts.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Infrastructure Constraint: Persistent concerns exist over delayed track renewal, outdated signalling systems, and frequent damage to signal and communication cables during maintenance and construction works \u2014 issues that the Railway Board has warned could have \u201ccatastrophic consequences.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Inadequate Safety Systems: Slow deployment means that most of the routes remain without a KAVACH, leaving them vulnerable to human-error or signalling failures.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Human Error: It remains a key contributor like errors in signal setting, point switching, train control, fatigue due to long hours.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-11-2025\/recurring-rail-tragedies-india\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58957"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58990,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58957\/revisions\/58990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}