New Delhi: Have you ever thought while traveling in a train, how old is its engine or the condition of the track on which your train runs?
These questions arise when there is a train accident anywhere in the country.
Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Choudhary in his prime time show DNA, which aired on Friday (January 14), tried to dig deeper into what makes Indian Railways sick and the main causes of rail accidents in the country.
According to research, trains are still being operated in India with the technology of British era. But is now the time for Indian Railways to tear down old tracks and old technology?
The question became relevant at least once again 12 coaches of the Bikaner-Guwahati Express train derailed, killing nine and injuring over 40. Near Domohani in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal on Thursday.
According to preliminary reports, the driver of the train tried to stop the train by applying emergency brake after a technical fault in the engine.
But sadly, 12 coaches full of passengers derailed leading to this tragic accident.
In a worrying trend, India tops the list of countries that witness train derailments like this almost every year. The question arises, why are these accidents not stopping?
India’s rail network is about 170 years old and needs to be upgraded urgently. Between 1853 and 1947, the British laid 54,000 km of rail lines in India.
Which means that out of the total 67,000 km, 54,000 km of railway line is of British era.
While new railway tracks are needed to run modern and fast trains in any country, India has not been able to upgrade its old railway tracks properly.
Due to these old tracks, railways carry out repair work almost every day, causing delays in trains.
Secondly, there is also the risk of train accidents. More importantly, modern trains are not able to run properly on these tracks to their full potential as these old tracks affect the speed of these trains.
There has not been much development in this area in the last 70 years. Though there are more than 22,000 trains in India, the engines of most of these trains are either based on old technology or have old coaches.
India continues to use Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coaches, which countries like the Philippines also stopped using in 2009.
Although India manufactures modern Link Hoffmann Busch (LHB) coaches developed by Germany at the Kapurthala Coach Factory in Punjab, work has been slow.
Unlike ICF coaches, LHB coaches do not derail when the emergency brake is applied, and can be driven at a speed of 200 kmph, while ICF coaches can run at a maximum speed of 100 kmph.
On a positive note, the number of train accidents in India has come down significantly on a yearly basis. In 2014, there were 118 train accidents in India, while in 2021 the number dropped to 22. Apart from this, the number of deaths in train accidents has also come down significantly in the last 10 years. But despite all this, the development of Indian Railways remains a distant dream.
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/*$( ".comment-button" ).live("click", disqusToggle);
function disqusToggle() {
var id = $(this).attr("id");
$("#disqus_thread1" + id).toggle();
};*/
//$(".main-rhs2427973").theiaStickySidebar();
var prev_content_height = $(content_selector).height();
//$(function() {
var layout = $(content_selector);
var st = 0;
///});
}
}
});
/*}
};*/
})(jQuery);
,