Kalyug – Now Train Climbs Platform and Kills

It is surprising that in 25 years of diesel locomotive production, only one brake manufacturer had absolute monopoly

How can investigations be honest when the same set of officers have been involved in perpetuating this monopoly?

Dominant companies with active connivance of Railway Board officials successfully plant ‘their’ faithfuls through Railway Board

How can Railway Board exert authority over Zonal Railways when 100% Railway Board is adhoc?

What moral authority Board now carries when its members are officers who could not qualify to become general managers?

Why is there no DG/Safety?

Why has the situation come to this pass?

Why more than one lakh crore worth of rolling stock is purchased by adhoc/irregular Board?

How can meaningful policy decisions be taken when the entire Board consists of junior and ad-hoc officials?

Why have the letters indicating loss of brake power in wagons been ignored?

Hon’ble Minister’s core team, brings very interesting experience. The core of Khan Market Gang (KMG), between just four officers – Advisor and EDPG in MR cell, EDCC in CRB office, Establishment Officer brings experience of more than 50 years in just Railway Board!!! They have got their work done under UPA and NDA with equal elan. While KMG successfully fulfilled their personal objectives, they derailed Indian Railways effectively.

Pls Read Once Again: “अश्विनी वैष्णव जी आप पहले रेलमंत्री नहीं हैं, जो ‘खान मार्केट गैंग’ से घिरे हैं!“

In a rarest of rare accident on 21 Nov (https://odishatv.in/accident/news-3-dead-as-goods-train-runs-into-waiting-hall-in-jajpur-s-korei-station-190716), a derailed goods train climbed on the platform and killed three. This was not the first such accident – on 27 October, derailed goods train ran through the station area Gurpa in ECR (https://www.dnaindia.com/viral/report-viral-video-train-s-locomotive-drags-derailed-carriage-in-gurpa-bihar-2996187). We were just fortunate that derailed train ran through the station and did not hit platform. The two accidents are closely linked prima facie.

Fingers are pointed to the quality of brake control system called ‘Bogie Mounted Brake System’ (#BMBS). Various railways have been raising the issue of unpredictable loss of braking effort while driving the train. This has also led to an increase in SPAD (Signal Passing at Danger) cases and derailments.

Brakes are controlled by RDSO and there has been a very tightly controlled monopolistic situation in couplers and brakes. The bane of RDSO is that it has been reduced as a proxy for Railway Board officials. It is well known that officers cannot be put on key positions in design directorates without Railway Board and dominant industry coming to agreement.

Wagon, Motive Power, Signal, PS&EMU, Electrical directorates have become notorious for this. Dominant companies with active connivance of Railway Board officials successfully plant ‘their’ faithfuls through Railway Board. It is Railway Board which alone has authority to post officers into RDSO.

Not just this, even the portfolio is decided by Railway Board, not the Director General of RDSO. Railway Officers spend their entire career dealing with a small set of vendors. This self perpetuating cycle gets enabled by long tenures, rotation between two related units, working similar types of work, and the creation of power centres.

RDSO’s role can not be overemphasized. It has problems no doubt, but its absence will lead to progressive deterioration of assets of Indian Railways and can lead to outright catastrophe because of lack of technical knowledge.

Modus Operandi:

It is well known that few dominant companies start to influence all key positions where their product is dealt. It is well known that no inconvenient officer anywhere in Indian Railways can even think of getting posted where these products are handled.

As the entire network is gamed, suggestions, committee recommendations, conferences are all pre-decided. As every chair on the high table is given to loyalists, what ring leader wants, gets done and responsibility gets diffused – no vigilance can crack this. Casualty is a truthful feedback driven purchase.

Electric and Diesel locomotive ecosystems have been notorious in this. It is surprising that in 25 years of diesel locomotive production, only one brake manufacturer had absolute monopoly. The same company is a BMBS manufacturer and enjoys monopolistic status. How can investigations be honest when the same set of officers have been involved in perpetuating this monopoly?

What One cannot understand
Indian Railways switched to Air brakes because air brakes are inherently fail safe unless someone does gross tampering. Cases of loss of brake power, failure of brakes are rising which just points to the fact that there is the grossest of gross failure.

Naturally this has not happened in a year or two. This is the legacy of “Khan Market School of Management” which rewarded sycophancy and blind loyalty over merit and professionalism.
Hon’ble Minister Saheb, the immediate first aid action you need to undertake is rotation!

But when the Railway Board has officers who have spent more than half a century between just four of them, can railways or anyone expect fairness and justice? What is the professional standing of these four individuals, what is their contribution to solve field problems?

Advisor is more of a procurement and tender person than an engineer. Haulage performance of his flagship WAG-12 locomotive was commented upon for poor performance till he came back into the system – (Please wait for sometime, will disclose why this happened and what was the reason behind all this poor performance!).

These two accidents indicate rot. How can Railway Board exert authority over Zonal Railways when 100% Railway Board is adhoc? What moral authority Board now carries when its members are officers who could not qualify to become general managers?

Why is there no DG Safety? Why has the situation come to this pass? Why more than one lakh crore worth of rolling stock is purchased by adhoc, irregular Board? How can meaningful policy decisions be taken when the entire Board consists of junior officers? Why have the letters indicating loss of brake power in wagons been ignored? Train killing people standing on a platform is a shameful failure of Railways.

Failure can only be of Crew, Locomotives or Tracks but neither does Railways have Member Traction & Rolling Stock (#MTRS) nor Member Infrastructure (#MInfra) nor DG/Safety.

Still I would say – Mantriji you are lucky – please do not push your luck further!

#AshwiniVaishnaw #Mantriji #MR #CRB #CEORlyBd #RailwayBoard #KhanMarketGang #KMG #Advisor #AdhocBoard #DGSafety #MInfra #MTRS #MOBD #WAG12