Why in News?

• According to the Performance Audit on Derailment in Indian Railways, nearly three fourth of 217 consequential train accidents across the country between 2017-18 and 2020-21 were caused by derailments.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Highlights of the Performance Audit on Derailment in Indian Railways
• Classification of Train Accidents
• Main Reason Behind Train Accident
• The Major Factors Responsible for Derailments
• The Performance of RRSK
• Recommendations of the CAG Report

Highlights of the ‘Performance Audit on Derailment in Indian Railways’:

• The audit report was tabled in Parliament in December 2022 by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
• The focus of the audit was to ascertain whether measures to prevent derailments and collisions were clearly laid down and implemented by the Ministry of Railways.
• It also analysed the performance of Rashtriya Rail SanrakshaKosh (RRSK).
  • The RRSK was created in 2017-18 with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years with an annual outlay of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 15,000 crore from Gross Budgetary Support and Rs 5,000 crore out of Railways Internal Resources).
  • The proposed safety fund will be utilised for track improvement, bridge rehabilitation, rolling stock replacement, human resource development, improved inspection system and safety work at level crossing, etc.

Classification of Train Accidents:

• Consequential Train Accidents: Includes train accidents with serious repercussions in terms of either: loss of human life/human injury/loss of Railway property/Interruption to railway traffic.
  • Out of 217 “consequential train accidents”, 163 were due to derailments during 2017-18 to 2020-21.
  • This was followed by accidents due to fire in trains (20), accidents at unmanned level-crossings (13), collisions (11), accidents at manned level crossing (8), and miscellaneous (2).
• Other Train Accidents: Includes all other accidents not covered under consequential train accidents.
  • In this category, 1,800 accidents took place. The derailments account for 68% (1,229 derailments).

Main Reason Behind Train Accident:

• Out of 2017 consequential and non-consequential accidents (1,800 + 217), the accidents due to derailments were 1,392 (69%).
• The total damages/loss of assets was reported as Rs 33.67 crore in the selected cases of derailments.

The Major Factors Responsible for Derailments:

• Maintenance of tracks (167 cases).
• Deviation of track parameters beyond permissible limits (149 cases)
• Bad driving/over speeding (144 cases)

The Performance of RRSK:

• The Gross Budgetary Support of Rs 15,000 crore had been contributed.
• But the actual generation of internal resources of Railways for funding of the remaining Rs 5,000 crore per year to RRSK fell short of target during these four years.
  • Thus, short deployment of funds by Railways to the tune of Rs 15,775 crore (78.88%) out of the total share of Rs 20,000 crore had defeated the primary objective of creation of RRSK.
• The allotment of funds for track renewal works declined from Rs 9,607.65 crore (2018-19) to Rs 7,417 crore in 2019-20 and even these funds were not “fully utilised”.
  • Out of 1127 derailments during 2017-21, 289 derailments (26%) were linked to track renewals.

Recommendations of the CAG Report:

• Development of a strong monitoring mechanism to ensure timely implementation of maintenance activities by adopting fully mechanised methods of track maintenance and improved technologies.
• Railway administration must follow the guiding principles for deployment of RRSK funds.
• Indian Railway may prepare the Detailed Outcome Framework for each item of safety work.
• Ensuring strict adherence to the scheduled timelines for conducting and finalising accident inquiries.