Modi’s railway upgrade cost billions, but safety is still the greatest fear

There is no railway system quite like the Indian system. Trains remain an essential lifeline in India – the world’s most populous country, with more than 1.4 billion people – carrying about 13 million passengers a day for work, family and leisure on trains that weave across 40,000 miles of track – more than enough to wrap around the earth.

Friday night’s collision involving two passenger trains and a freight train in the eastern state of Odisha was one of the worst accidents since 1999, when a collision between two trains in West Bengal killed 285 people. More recently, 160 people died in 2016 when the Indore to Patna express derailed, and just months ago in February, two goods trains collided in Uttar Pradesh.

The cause of the Odisha accident is still being investigated, including whether a signalling error led the Chennai-bound Coromandel express to fatally change tracks and plough into a stationary freight train.

Though the number of railway accidents has fallen in the past few years – there were 135 in 201415 compared with 55 in 2019-20 – derailments of trains remain the main cause.

Under the government led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, billions have been spent to upgrade and modernise the railway, including a plan to have 100% electrification of the network by 2024 and a plan for it to go net zero by 2030. The railways are also in the process of installing an anti-collision system across the network that causes trains to brake automatically.

However, the system had yet to be in put in place where Friday’s accident took place in Odisha, along the eastern rail route, which is one of India’s oldest and busiest both in terms of passengers and trains carrying oil and coal.

Recently there has been a record allocation in funds for infrastructure and safety upgrades, with a particular focus on the introduction of the glossy, high-speed Vande Bharat – translating as “Salute to India” – electric trains and modern new stations, one of Modi’s flagship projects.

But at the same time, safety concerns have been rising on the railways and the number of consequential accidents – incidents caused by operational lapses – on Indian Railways, the statutory body owned by the country’s railroad ministry, increased by 37% last year.

Though most did not result in any casualties, the problem was still raised by the chairman of the railway board last year as a “matter of grave concern”.

Experts say that while the focus has been on sleek modernisation projects, safety remains the biggest problem.

Indian Railways, however, maintained Friday’s accident did not reflect deeper safety issues.

“This question is arising because there has been one incident now. But if you see the data, you will see that there have been no major accidents for years,” said a railways ministry spokesperson.