Railways face glitz or safety option
A fatal accident and a major project delay has reignited issues that have plagued the Indian Railways. Earlier this month, as many as 5 Mumbai commuters were killed when two overloaded trains travelling in opposite directions came dangerously close on a turn between two suburban stations. Those hanging out on footboards brushed each other and many fell off.
In an unrelated development, three giant-sized tunnel boring machines (TBMs), on order to drill an underground route for a 21-kilometre stretch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, have been held up at a Chinese port. The ground breaking ceremony for the project was performed way back in September 2017 by Prime Minister Modi and then Japanese PM Shinzo Abe. However, issues mainly related to land acquisition have slowed the project.
Now, the TBMs have added to the delay. Built in Guangzhou, China by German tunnelling specialist Herrenknecht, they were to reach India by October 2024, but clearance from the Chinese authorities has not come. Meanwhile, project cost has almost doubled to Rs 1.08 lakh crore, and completion of the new rail corridor has been pushed back to 2029.
The massive Mumbai suburban train accident, and the lack of funds for improving safety, on the one hand, while huge funds are allocated to what P Chidambaram called 'vanity projects' like the Bullet Train', is triggering serious debate.
Mumbai's death trap
It is indeed a scandal that Mumbai's rail network has become a death trap. Suburban rail accident figures show 51,802 people died in accidents over two decades from 2005 to 2024 – an unacceptable 7 deaths every day.
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