India’s train crash shows chronic lack of investment in improving safety, experts say

Railway tracks have suffered from years of lack of maintenance and are not built to accommodate the pressure of fast-moving trains that now ply the country

The Indian government should set up an automated system to monitor railway movement and accord track maintenance the ‘highest priority’, says one expert

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A destroyed train car left at the site of a deadly multiple-train crash in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 8:30pm, 5 Jun 2023

The deaths of nearly 300 people in one of India’s worst train accidents highlights the urgent need for modernisation, with millions of people a day burdening a colonial-era network suffering from lack of investment in improving rail safety, experts have said.

At least 275 people died and some 900 were wounded on Friday following a massive three-train collision in Odisha. The Coromandel Shalimar Express, a passenger train, derailed near Balasore, hitting a goods train. Another train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast, crashed into both the derailed coaches. A preliminary report indicated the accident was the result of signal failure.

Passenger and freight trains were running again on Monday, rumbling past the debris of smashed carriages from the crash.

India’s rail networks, built by the colonial British government, are one of the world’s oldest. They carry as many as 25 million passengers a day, with some 19,000 trains running daily at over 7,000 train stations. Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred rail accidents happen every year.

Experts say a lack of investment into upgrading rail existing infrastructure has compounded the network’s problems.

“India’s rail infrastructure suffers from years of underinvestment,” said rail consultant Lalit Chandra Trivedi, who has been in the industry for 18 years.

Trivedi said signals and tracks in India did not support “speeds higher than 110km/h”, resulting in the underutilisation of railway vehicles that are capable of running at 160km/h. “There has been no induction of engineers into the system for the last couple of years,” he added.

While passenger fares are highly subsidised, and more trains have been purchased to meet increasing travel activity and heavy freight, India’s railway tracks have suffered from years of lack of maintenance.