‘Human waste, passenger load jeopardising railway safety’

The total railway track network across the country is 66,687 km.

Lohani said that open defecation along railway tracks was also one of the major reasons behind decay of railway lines and the department needed to protect tracks from unauthorised entry.

“More passengers means more human waste on the tracks. Railway tracks need space to take the load and maintain their springy nature. Due to the blockage by waste and dust, the tracks gets stuck, leading to fractures,” said Lohani, whose previous assignment was as chairman and managing director of Air India.

There were 43 railway accidents recorded in the country this year until October 31. Of these, 32 were derailments.

Railway records show that passenger traffic has increased by 1700% since Independence, and freight traffic has increased by 1500%. The network of tracks has only expanded by 35% during this period.

In 2007, the railways operated 2,077 passenger trains, which increased by 67% to 3,482 in 2016. Over this period, 3,355 km of tracks, or just 5.30%, were added.

Lohani said higher traffic was leading to greater load on infrastructure.

“The maintenance team requires block time, which they are not able to get due to busy schedules. We have now said that requests from maintenance teams cannot be ignored in any circumstances,” he said.

The reasons are broadly categorised as personal/family (50%), illness-related (11%), work-related (8%), unknown/ under investigation 18%) and others (13%).

Incidentally, 67 of the total 115 suicides were in areas worst affected by Maoist violence — the seven districts of Bastar division: Kanker, Kondagaon, Jagdalpur, Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur and Narayanpur.

“This is worrying,” DM Awasthi, special director general (Naxal operations), Chhattisgarh, told HT.

“A superintendent of policelevel officer will be appointed to examine the causes for the suicides. We will focus on the fig- ures of 2015 (6), 2016 (12) and 2017 to chalk out a plan for preventing suicides. We will also take the help of psychologists, if needed,” Awasthi added.

The state police personnel posted in Chhattisgarh’s Maoisthit regions include the special task force and district reserve guard, while the CAPF personnel are from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Border Security Force (BSF).

“Suicides within the ranks demoralise security personnel, who are also greatly affected by deaths of colleagues during encounters with Maoists,” said a senior police officer of Bastar who did not want to be named.

Security forces have killed at least 69 Maoists (their bodies were recovered) so far this year, but lost 59 of their own during encounters.