Six people were died and around 30 were injured on Sunday when 11 coaches of the superfast Seemanchal Express heading to Delhi derailed at Vaishali district in Bihar.
According to railway sources, preliminary reports a fracture--term for railway tracks widening--caused the accident. This has once again raised questions on the lack of preparedness by railway staff to tackle the issue of fractures. On an average of six rail fractures, every hundred kilometres was recorded in 2017-18.
Based on the latest data available with the ministry of railways though there was an 18 per cent decrease in the overall number of accidents this financial year compared to 2017-18, the cases of rail fractures increased 26 per cent. From 3006 cases of rail fractures reported in 2017-18, the number of incidents increased to 3788 in 2018-19. Interestingly, 64 per cent of the total 44 accidents occurred till November this year was due to the failure of railway staff.
The accident took place at 3.58 am near Sahadai Buzurgon on the Barauni- Bachhwara-Hajipur Single Line in the Sonpur division of the East Central Railways. Sources cite poor track maintenance as a major reason for fracture on tracks. Some blame it on the extreme weather conditions in North India as a major reason for fractures that can cause a derailment. This is mainly due to the linear expansion of tracks in the summer season and its contraction in winter.
"Now, with track renewals being made in a better pace, efficient manning is needed to tackle such incidents. They need more safety staff and fill those vacancies fast," said a former railway board member. As on January 2019, total 1,51348 safety-related posts are vacant with IR.
Though the railways have introduced several measures like Ultrasonic Flawed Detection (USFD) testing of rails to detect flaws and timely removal of defective rails, renewal of over-aged rails and cold weather patrolling, experts say that more research should be done in this regard. However, due to the fast pace of track renewal works, the railways were able to bring down the number of people killed in railway accidents from 238 in 2016-17 to 57 in 2017-18. In 2018-19, 29 people lost their lives on railway accidents.
Union Railways minister Piyush Goyal, who also holds the finance portfolio, in his maiden Budget speech and the current BJP government's last Budget before elections, had said that the current year was one of the safest years in history for the Indian Railways which has a bad safety record.
Commissioner of Railway Safety will be conducting an inquiry into this accident. Railways informed that rescue operations are already completed. The Railways has also announced ex gratia compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased in Sunday's accident, Rs 1 lakh to grievously injured and Rs.50,000 to persons who sustained minor injuries.