TrAIN TrAVEl clAIms OVEr 60 lIVEs A yEAr
In its reply to an RTI filed by this newspaper, Railways put the causes of death as derailment, collision, fire, sabotage, etc.
Over 60 people lose their lives every year while travelling on the coaches of Indian trains, according to information supplied by Indian Railways in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by The Sunday Guardian. Over 650 people (658), including passengers and drivers on moving trains, have died and 1,501 have suffered injuries in the period between 2005-2016, as per the information supplied.
These numbers do not include the details of accidents, deaths and number of injured from the North East Frontier Railway Zone (NF) division, South Western Railways, Western Railway ( Vadodara division) and Konkan Railway, as replies from these divisions giving details about deaths, the number of injured and cause of accidents were yet to be received. The casualty numbers also do not include the people or accidents that happened at unmanned or manned crossings, including vehicles being hit by a passing train. Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones, which are further subdivided into 70 divisions.
The cause of the death of the 658 people has been derailment, collision, fire, sabotage, bomb blast and collapse of bridge.
In the period between 2005-2016, Indian Railways witnessed at least 90 incidents of derailment of passenger and goods trains in which 376 people lost their lives and 1,053 were injured.
In the same period, 18 incidents of collisions (two moving bodies colliding with each other) were reported, in which 124 people were killed and 302 injured.
Surprisingly, at least eight incidents of fire on a moving train, too, were reported, in which nine people lost their lives and two were injured.
As per the incomplete data provided by the North Western Railway, 62 incidents of train accidents happened between 2006-2016 in which 92 were killed and 73 injured.
No cause of action behind the accidents was shared in the reply. In the Danapur divison, 41 passengers were injured between 2005-2016; however, the cause of action for the same was not shared in the reply.
Platform collapsing on a train in Bhagalpur in 2006 had led to the loss of 36 lives; 16 were injured. Bomb blast on a moving train in May 2014 took the life of one person and led to the injury to 14 in the given time period. At least 29 were killed when a bridge was washed away in August 2015 in Madhya Pradesh.
The Twelfth Report of the Standing Committee on Railways on “Safety and Security in Railways”, which was presented in Parliament last month, had stated that renewal of railway tracks—non-renewal being one of the main reasons for the derailment of trains, as revealed in the RTI reply— was not happening in the manner and speed in which it should have been done.
“The Committee had found that while ideally, 4,500 km of track should be renewed annually, currently only 2,700 km of track length has been targeted for renewal. Since it is evident that the targets kept for track renewals are not commensurate with the actual requirement on the ground, the Committee recommended that the Ministry of Railways accord highest priority to safety. The Committee also felt that physical as well as financial targets in respect of track renewals should to be enhanced as per the annual requirement for track renewals.”
The Committee had also raised concerns over the delay in switching to Linke Hofmann Busch ( LHB) coaches from the present conventional coaches, as LHB coaches and fitment of tight lock Centre Buffer Couplers ( CBC) prevent coaches from climbing over each other in an unfortunate event of accident.
The Committee had also expressed its grave concern over the fact that half of the accidents had taken place due to lapses on the part of the railway staff, and included careless working, poor maintenance cases, adoption of short-cuts, non-observance of laid down safety rules and procedures—something that was also confirmed by the RTI replies. Most of the states are lagging in implementing the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), 2016, and have not set up state level regulatory authorities. So far only three states have set up regulators even though the Act is supposed to be implemented all over the country from 1 May.
Moreover, the states that have framed the Rules have substantially diluted the provisions of the Act, thereby killing its basic spirit of providing protection to the consumer and bringing in transparency to the entire sector.
The RERA Act, which came into force in May last year, provides a speedy dispute resolution mechanism in case of default by the developers. It also stipulates the compulsory registration of all the residential real estate projects with the regulator, where plot sizes are more than 500 sq m. This also applies to ongoing, under-construction projects. Accordingly, all the states have to frame Rules and set up their own regulators.
However, till now only Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi have set up state level regulatory authorities. It is to be noted that many home buyers have deferred their buying decision till the Act gets implemented as they feel it will be safe to invest after regulators are in place.
RERA, it is to be noted, is to be implemented from 1 May 2017, as proposed in the Act. For this, all state governments will have to put in place the Act’s rules and regulations for their respective states. The last date to do so was 30 October 2016. However, most of the states have missed the deadline.
Till now only Gujarat, and other senior officials of states and UTs, in order to review the preparations for launching the Act. Various other aspects related to the Act were also discussed.
As per provisions of the Act, the developer has to declare to the Authority all the details related to the project. All this information has to be regularly updated and made available to the buyers on the regulator’s website. The regulator website will carry a list of defaulting developers. Besides, the developer has to deposit 70% of the money collected from homebuyers in an escrow account, for the particular project.
During the meeting, the government clarified that there would be no amendments to the Act as full implementation would begin in May this year when Real Estate Regulatory Authorities and Appellate Tribunals would become functional.
Half of the accidents had taken place due to lapses on the part of the railway staff. Over 650 people (658), including passengers and drivers on moving trains, have died and almost 1,501 have suffered injuries in the period between 2005-2016. At least 90 incidents of derailment of passenger and goods trains took place in this period.