Khatauli Moment: Back to Basics for a Reset is an Imperative, Part-1
Back to back accidents, some say an average of three accidents a month brings IR to its moment of reckoning. FOUR days FIVE accidents:
Unless #PM treats current state of #Safety as his #Khatauli-Moment, the organisation will #spiral down further. What a pity, even after pouring lakhs of crores of rupees a year, #Modi ji cannot now claim anything of #railways which can bring him true joy and pride. What went wrong?
Losing focus on basics
#Signalling accidents of past 20 years show that lessons were just not learnt. #Balasore-accident – with 296 deaths – was 6th reported #accident in just 6 months last year – this is by #RailwayBoard’s own letter written four months before Balasore.
We brought out that same mode of accidents have been repeatedly occurring. #IndianRailways focused on shift from #ICF to #LHB so that in accidents, #Passengers do not die due to telescoping. But same focus was not given to setting right #signalling system which was #root-cause of collisions.
How was this focus lost? Even today when we have progressively shifted to LHB, we now have been stuck by accidents like one at Gonda-Jhilahi and that of #Coromandel Express. Why did mandarins of rail bhawan forgot to look at the basics?
Some say that Signal & Telecom department doesn’t have a #Member and this reduces focus, and oversight. In fact experts opine that having a non-competing department under boss of another department, like S&T under #electrical department in past or under #engineering department as under present arrangement, system delivers better. This is because juniors have greater chance of proposals approved by top man. Unfortunately, S&T was one of the first organisations of Indian Railways to slip in to the clutches of vendors. No. 1 failure mode is even today is attributed to #cables-the den of #corruption. Pouring of money in signalling has been most beneficial to officials and #vendors alike, with vendors having decisive veto over postings and transfers.
It is clear that S&T department failed professionally. If one sees the sheer volume of number of signalling failures in a division, one gets a sense of why short cuts become necessary. Having to lock, connecting doors with #data-logger cannot prevent accidents.
#Engineering-work is not #glamorous and needs #patient-working. As we mentioned, #designing, #design-approvals, #engineering-solution, #field-erection, #validation, and many more steps need very careful attention. But artificial deadlines, acceptance of poor #quality materials, “sab chalta hai” attitude of senior officers means like in Balasore, wrong or temporary wirings exist in thousands of locations. It was sad to see after Balasore accident a scrambling led by #Chairman, Railway Board to verify circuit diagrams, verify physical wiring, updating station working rules. Imagine! imagine the extent of #incompetency!
Barking up the wrong tree
ICF to LHB coach transition, #Kavach may have their own use and hence priority. But who has looked in to the reliability of signalling gear-Sir, the root of the problem lies there.
Unfortunately, there is no #tech-plan to address this issue. Officers who can question wrong practices, question vendors just have been silenced.
Look at #MemberInfrastructure’s letter who prophetically wrote two months before Balasore accident:
General Problem of Modi Govt-Talent & Loyalty Deficit
People who support the Hon’ble #PMModi also opine that one area where he miscalculated was his strategy to handle #bureaucracy. This has hurt him not just in #railways but across different ministries.
There is clear #talent-deficit which is now hitting PM very hard. People selected to lead organisations typically have been mediocres who just knew how to manage new levers of power. Every sector, every ministry is facing this as bureaucrats galavant and make merry with never before opportunity to handle record expenditure.
Political leadership was correct to read that they needed bureaucracy they could trust, but went wrong on doing corrections when results were not as per expectations in selecting. It is bewildering that many officers who have been #empanelled in central government’s staffing scheme hold strong #political views which are against the ethos of the political leadership of #transparency, #integrity and #delivery. Also, they forgot that #subordinate-services are also important component of bureaucracy. This layer gets to hide behind the #UPSC recruited officers.
The result: burgeoning #corruption, #dissatisfaction of citizenry.
Take case of railways, a quick scan will reveal how by tweaking #selection and #empanelment criteria which looked good on powerpoint slides and paper not just under performed but consistently failed. The tweak happened on multiple levels-by grant of #extensions and post #retirement assignments to underperforming or incompetent officers #government has dealt body blow to the Ministry of Railways.
Forgetting How to Run Trains: CCRS Says ‘Error in Train Working’
In the provisional report submitted by the #CCRS, the Kanchejunga Express accident is classified as ‘Error in Train Working’. Let us look at the provisional findings again to understand the unsaid:
There is failure in basic #operating-procedures as the Station Master (#SM) did not take signature of #Guard [Train Manager] (6.0 (iv)). What does this indicate?
Even if there was #introduction of new #system and there was lack of understanding, but taking #signature of train’s crew on memos is very basic communication method-ensuring that the #message was relayed and read by intended party. This clearly indicates #casual, #lackadaisical and #unprofessional way of working. This work-culture gets compounded when failures like that of signalling occur.
On June 11, 2024 we wrote, “सुधीर-सेंस में हो रहा रेल संचालन-क्या भारतीय रेल अब ट्रेन चलाना भी भूल गई?”
6.0(iii) flags a very serious issue: walkie-talkies were not available with the locomotive #driver and the #guard of ill fated goods train. Lakhs of crores pumped in and we do not even have proper walkie-talkie sets for the crew on train? This shows utter #failure of the zonal railway. There was a concern which was taken up sometime back when it was found that in absence of regular railway supplies, locally, crew/division was buying Chinese walkie-talkies from e-retailers. This practice was pointed out as very serious lapse by railway board telecom directorate. Ashwini Vaishnaw ji held charge of #DOT also. He could have easily eased regulatory problems on spectrum etc.
Also, left unsaid is the heart of the problem-why did signalling system fail? Government needs to have a rock solid plan for low reliability signalling of Indian Railways. Kavach is not the answer for this. You don’t need to spend lakhs of crores on this.
Read-July 17, 2024: “मंत्री जी, सुधीर-सेंस को बिसराएँ-कम खर्च पर सेफ्टी सुनिश्चित कराएँ!”
Further, with #expansion of #automatic-signaling which is plagued by its own #poor-reliability, #vendor-cartels, there is immense confusion in #traffic department on how to handle it which has exposed the traffic department of railways: “After major accidents, confusion prevails over operation of trains during signal failures” (#WesternRailway seeks clarification on protocols; #EasternRailway withdraws order banning TA-912).
It is not understood that how can such confusion even exist? Automatic signalling is not new in the country.
Price of Killing NAIR & RDSO
RDSO handled #service and #safety-engineering, keeping #track of every failure on line. While #NAIR was devoted to higher management #training to handle managerial roles having direct impact on safety.
#NAIR has been brutally killed and #RDSO is discredited and demoralised to the point that it is just a “passive bystander”. We wrote on 21 May, “Fraud at the campus of National Academy of Indian Railways, Vadodara”. We had warned in past in following articles:
December 21, 2023, “भारतीय रेल राष्ट्रीय अकादमी का अवसान – बड़ी चालाकी से हड़पा गया एक रेल संस्थान!”
December 19, 2023, “Goodbye Railway Staff College-RIP !”
In absence of strong RDSO, broken morale of engineers, #RailBhawan is clueless as seen in the CRB’s safety review meetings. We warned on October 5, 2023, “Wither RDSO !”
#CRB mentioned the need of training in her latest #safety-review meeting. How can it improve #madam when Rail Bhawan inhumanly killed the apex academy, NAIR?