NEW DELHI, (AFP) - Indian train drivers complain of exhausting working hours and a lack of basic safety equipment -- some of the numerous hazards facing one of the busiest and most deadly rail networks in the world.
At the weekend, two separate crashes left 69 dead and about 200 injured after a derailment in northern Uttar Pradesh state and a bomb explosion on tracks in the restive northeastern state of Assam. While new shiny airport infrastructure is springing up across the country, the Indian railways -- a much romanticised legacy of British colonial rule -- often appear stuck in a time-warp.
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| Rescue personnel survey the scene of a train accident near Guwahati on Monday. AFP |
After decades of under-investment, the rolling stock is old, speeds are low, signalling is done manually in some areas, and a lack of fencing makes the network a soft target for militants.
Drivers say they are unfairly blamed for the frequent accidents, while the politicians in charge dodge their responsibility to the 18 million people that use the network daily.
K. Parthasarthy, a train driver and trade unionist in the All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA), told AFP he regularly drives for 13-14 hours non-stop. "It's exhausting, especially on a fast train with frequent signal stops," he said. "If I feel sleepy even for a few seconds, it can cause a terrible accident." One of the features lacking on the majority of long-distance trains is the so-called "dead man's handle," a switch that the driver must press at all times, he says. If the driver falls asleep or suffers a heart attack, for example, his or her finger slips from the switch and the brakes are automatically applied.
Most of the creaking system, the world's second-largest under a single management, also lacks anti-collision devices and a powerful independent regulator to monitor operations, observers say. "When accidents happen, everyone immediately blames the driver," Parthasarthy said. "Instead of going after the individual, they should take a look at the whole system." Railways expert G. Raghuram, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in the western city of Ahmedabad, told AFP that the government needed to buy modern safety equipment and upgrade the signalling system.
"The government has been dithering about anti-collision devices, wondering when they should get it, from which supplier, and so on, when they really just need to get on with it," he said.
The last railways minister, the arch-populist Mamata Banerjee, announced in February a 40 percent hike in the annual railway budget to 576 billion rupees ($12.9 billion). |
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