India's Railway Minister Shri. Ashwini Vaishnaw is an M.Tech from IIT, Kharagpur, a premier institution, and served as an IAS officer in Odisha, (where the train accident happened on 2nd June killing nearly 300 and injuring about 900 people) for 16 years during which he obtained an MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA. After resigning from the IAS in 2010, he worked in top management in the private sector before becoming a politician, getting nominated (no direct election) to Rajya Sabha, and finally becoming the Minister of Communications and then additionally the heavy-weight Ministry of Railways. "Vaishnaw firmly believes that the way to build the country is to put the money in investment rather than putting money in consumption", says Wikipedia.
The ambition of the Modi govt. to make India a 'developed nation' soon made the Railways embark on building and running high-speed trains as in the developed nations without first upgrading the
railway infrastructure (which was ranked 28th in 2019). The principal chief operating manager of the South Western Railway zone wrote in a letter in February about a design problem with the train signaling system that almost led to a collision of trains and said, if it is not "monitored and corrected immediately, it could lead to “re-occurrence and serious accidents”. This was relevant to the safety of the entire railways but was not acted upon by the Ministry. However, high publicity about the inauguration of high-speed train services all over India was going on without let up. The Minister himself was proudly releasing scenic videos of the high-speed trains on social media periodically. Apparently, winning the media battle on image perception was more important than applying professional integrity to the job he was handling.
According to multiple officials present at a ‘Chintan Shivir’, or a brainstorming session headed by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav Friday just hours before the accident, presentations by various zones on railway safety were skipped.
[Print.in]
There is high-profile news coverage and ministerial visits when deaths occur due to train derailments but it is a very small percentage of total railway accidents in India. Maximum deaths occur due to people falling from trains and trains colliding with people. Wild and domestic animal fatalities due to trains are also often reported but statistics are hard to find in the public domain. Indian Railways infrastructure quality ranked 28th in the world (2019) and it is
bewildering that in this scenario the Govt. of India is introducing more and more high-speed trains imitating developed nations like Japan and the USA. High-speed accidents result in a high number of deaths as seen in the present train accident in Odisha killing nearly 300 and injuring about 900 people.
Another long-standing characteristic of Indian Railways since the British colonial era is the discrimination of this public service based on the economic status of passengers. Can this be the India of our dreams? Luxurious fast trains for the rich but cattle class for the poor?
Hopefully, the multiple train collision and the tragic loss of hundreds of lives in Odisha on 2nd June would force the Railways to change its priority from high-speed trains to railway safety and equity.
