Yet another derailment kills several innocent lives in Andhra Pradesh and Hirakhand Express tragedy is one more stigma on the unsafe Indian Railways. Indian Railways are known for missing their schedule of travel with delays every single day but their accident record is maintained to perfection as ‘Death on Wheels’ has become a common phenomenon in our country. Prime Minister talks of ‘Bullet Trains’ in a country where ordinary trains fail to run on tracks without tragedies. Travel may get costlier in a few days from now when the ‘Budget’ is announced but would that be justified when not much money goes into rail infrastructure and safety of passengers?
Indian Railways have enough resources but they are badly managed and administered due to corruption at all levels. Accountability is the need of the hour and that can come by replacing the Rail Minister with a corporate CEO. Poor infrastructure should be replaced with modern technology and rail safety should be the top priority than gimmicks like ‘Bullet Trains’ as people can travel by air in case of emergencies.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
