Why in News?

According to Union Budget 2024-25, the Ministry of Railways has received a record allocation of over ₹2.55 lakh crore in financial year 2024-25, which is a jump of 5.85% from the previous year’s ₹2.41 lakh crore.

However, the Economic Survey 2023-24 indicates limited progress on safety-related works such as deployment of automatic train protection system Kavach and overhaul of signaling systems at all stations.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Issue of Railway Safety in India
• Highlights of the Union Budget 2024-25
• Highlights of the Economic Survey 2023-24

Issue of Railway Safety in India:

• Total number of train accidents in India: The six-year period between 2015-16 to 2021-22 saw 449 train accidents (excluding train accidents from Konkan Railways).
• Most prominent categories of train accidents in India:
  • Incidents of derailments have been the most common cause of train accidents in India.
  • According to the CAG’s Performance Audit of Indian Railways, nearly three fourth of 217 train accidents across the country between 2017-18 and 2020-21 were caused by derailments.
  • The 2nd most common cause of train accidents is level crossing accidents, followed by fire and collisions.
• Major factors responsible for derailments: Maintenance of tracks, deviation of track parameters beyond permissible limits, and bad driving/over speeding.
• Recommendations of the CAG:
  • Development of a strong monitoring mechanism: To ensure timely implementation of maintenance activities by adopting fully mechanised methods of track maintenance and improved technologies.
  • Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK): Railway administration must follow the guiding principles for deployment of RRSK funds.
  • Detailed Outcome Framework: Indian Railway may prepare the framework for each item of safety work.
  • Conducting and finalising accident inquiries: Ensuring strict adherence to the scheduled timelines for conducting and finalising accident inquiries.

Highlights of the Union Budget 2024-25:

• The total outlay provided for capital expenditure:
  • It comes to ₹2.65 lakh crore after accounting for ₹2.52 lakh crore from general revenue, ₹200 crore from the Nirbhaya Fund, ₹3,000 crore from internal resources, and ₹10,000 crore from extra budgetary resources.
  • The majority of this fund will be spent on ensuring safety works, along with the creation of assets, acquisitions, construction and replacement.
  • In 2014, only ₹35,000 crore was spent towards capital expenditure on railways.
• The actual operating ratio of the railways:
  • Operating ratio is the number of rupees spent to earn every hundred rupees.
  • In Budget Estimates of FY 2024-25, this has gone up a bit to 98.22% (from 98.10% for FY 2022-23). This means for every 100 rupees spent, railways earn 98.22 rupees.
  • The operating ratio shows how efficient the management is at keeping costs low while generating revenue.
• Kavach installation:
  • Kavach (Automatic Train Protection System) consists of multiple components like hardware, software, optical fibre.
  • As India has a diverse network of railway systems, the challenge is to combine all networks for deployment of Kavach.
  • However, as approvals on Kavach 4.0 have been received, the pace of installation of the system will be rapid.

Highlights of the Economic Survey 2023-24:

• Slow pace of Kavach installation: Kavach has been deployed on 1,465 route km in the South-Central Railway. This is just 2.14% of the total railway network of 68,426 route km and 7,349 railway stations.
• Switch from mechanical signaling:
  • Out of 17 operational railway zones in India, eight zones have become free from mechanical signaling.
  • However, only 46% of India’s 7,325 railway stations had made the switch from mechanical signaling to electronic interlocking system (introduced in India 12 years ago) till FY24.
• Capex deployment: The capex deployment in railways has increased by 77% over the past five years, ranging to ₹2.62 lakh crore in FY24 with significant investments in construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling.
• Installation of signaling intervention - Automatic Block Signaling (ABS):
  • This system uses automatic signals to regulate train passage between blocks, preventing rear-end collisions and assisting trains travelling in the same direction.
  • While the ABS is a proven low-cost signaling solution, it has been commissioned on only 6.47% of total length of Indian Railways.