Zonal rivalries derail Railways’ punctuality bid

On Wednesday, some half-a-dozen express trains were kept waiting for the green signal on the outer circle of Palwal, 85 kms from Delhi on the Nizamuddin-Agra route, from 4.15pm to 5.30pm.

Apparently, it was no lack of line that caused the delay. Sources in the railways told HT that the unscheduled halt of trains was due to rivalry between the two railway zones to maintain better-punctuality record.

Palwal’s outer circle is an interchanging point between two railway zones and divisions – Delhi division under Northern Railway (NR) and Agra division under North Central Railway (NCR).

Anil Bharda, secretary general of the All India Train Controllers’ Association, said NR’s Delhi division deliberately halted the trains under the NCR zone to dent its punctuality record.

Indian Railways has 16 zones, which are again divided into subdivisions.

Bharda claimed that it was “at the behest of senior officials that a goods train was denied green signal just before Palwal that falls under Agra division in NCR. It blocked the way of all other important trains coming on that route for one and a half hour” .

The divisional railway manager of Delhi Division didn’t respond to calls and messages to comment on Bharda’s claim.

A senior railway spokesperson, however, attributed the cause of halt to dense fog, a claim train drivers HT spoke to rejected. “There was no fog between 4pm and 5pm,” said a driver whose train was halted.

Sanajy Pandhi, working president of the Indian Railway Loco Running Men Organisation, an association of train drivers, said that a train is never halted due to fog, even if it is dense.

The NCR-NR rivalry is not an isolated instance.

Sources within the Railways informed that such unscheduled halts are prevalent in other interchanging points of sixteen zones, delaying trains, especially the goods trains.

“The NCR does the same when its turn comes. They go to any extent to satisfy their egos, causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers,” says a senior official posted in the NCR zone.