Eclipse of Indian Railways Under ‘Modi Rail’?

The fallout of the accident of Coromandel Express in Balasore, Odisha in last year, and the Sealdah-Agartala Kanchenjunga Express near Rangapani Railway Station in the northern part of West Bengal in June 2024 isn't over as yet. The Railway Safety Commissioner, complying with the regulation in this regard, has completed his primary enquiry. A CBI enquiry has also started in the Coromandel Express accident.

As a journalist, this writer has had a wide experience of covering several tragic accidents. Behind railway accidents there lie many strange reasons that do not become apparent at the initial stage. Once in Madhya Pradesh, not very far from Champa Junction, a lot many bogies of Bombay Mail fell into a river. After reaching the accident site, we found the engine of the train standing erect on the track; it didn't fall into the river.

Though this writer did not visit the site of the recent rail accidents near Balasore in Orissa and Ranapani in West Bengal, conversations with many acquaintances, old and new, in the Railways, after the accident give some insights.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry will surely prove, with documentary evidence, if the accident was a result of any subversive activities or due to some technical failures. That will indicate a reason for the accident.

Several railway employees and officials felt that Indian Railways and accidents had become synonyms; rather accidents, they said, were the ‘new normal’ and safe travel was only exceptional and a matter of great luck. It also turned out from various discussions that currently a competition was going on between, what they termed as ‘Modi Rail’, and Indian Railways. And the latter was falling flat, taking punches from the former.

Common citizens are aware that Indian Railways has always been seen as the fiefdom of the railway minister. But the current minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, is an exception. The reasons, by and large known to us, are that the Indian Railways now does not have a separate budget. Second, The Narendra Modi government has taken a policy decision that ongoing projects would first be completed before introducing new trains or tracks.

Many close observers of Indian Railway functioning have expressed their apprehensions about the first decision, while appreciating the latter. Railway budgets commonly meant giving bounties to the home state of the railway minister. Hence, the decision to finish ongoing projects first was wise.

But the problem with the present government lies elsewhere. First, the designation of 'Prime Minister ' is not sufficient for Modi because that doesn't distinguish him from his predecessors like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee. His way of governance and the showering of praise on him by his cabinet colleagues have, it must be said, turned Modi into a ‘super prime minister’. That's why, with a sudden twist of decision, there arrived a new surprise, named 'Vande Bharat'.

This is because Modi has realised that if he sticks to the decision of completing the ongoing projects first, he would have to only keep cutting ribbons to inaugurate projects announced by former rail ministers, such as Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad. How can the vast Indian Railway empire not have a single signature project of Modi?

Explaining this further, an official compared the introduction of new trains with the example of a detergent in the market which appears with new prefixes like 'Super', 'Extra Super', 'Extra White', 'Extra Bright' after a certain period. The content inside the packet never changes. It’s all a glorification of names.

In October 2022, the Railways declared about 130 general mail or express trains as 'Superfast' and enhanced their fares. Although there is no difference between the erstwhile general train and the newly-coined ‘superfast’ one as regards reaching the destination. As per one account, the total delay in running of these so-called ‘superfast’ trains from January to September in 2022 totalled 24 years, i.e. over 2,00,10,000 hours. This is because of lack of sufficient tracks. There are some 1,000 trains in the total of 12,524 that were introduced, catering to the political interests of leaders and ministers.

Such ailments afflicting Indian Railways are not new. All tricks in this institution centre around speed, because Railways introduce new trains whenever there is failure to meet self-declared targets about punctuality.

The new trains introduced are not results of success. Rather, these are futile attempts to hide the failures. If trains run on schedule, the need for starting speedier trains doesn't arise.  In a country, where passenger and goods trains run on the same track, the introduction of bullet trains or high-speed trains tantamount to putting the lives of countrymen at the altar of political interests.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in its 2022 report, had expressed concern about train punctuality. The index declined from 79% in 2012-13 to 69.23% in 2018-19, in the terminating stations. Although Indian Railways maintain a comparatively low benchmark in punctuality.

According to CAG, “Punctuality measured on a terminating basis does not conform to global best practices. The increase of only 3.5% average speed over the last ten years in not a perceptible achievement despite upgradation of track infrastructure, rolling stock and signalling system.”

Despite making ardent queries, this writer was not able to find any international yardstick regarding the carriage capacity of railway lines. In case it is there, in this aspect also our country is in the race backward, like we are in 'hunger index', 'human development index ' or ' press freedom index'.

Today, minister Vaishnaw is only the titular head of the railway ministry; the department is actually run under the leadership of the corporate chairman-cum chief executive officer of the Railway Board, which functions on directions from the Prime Minister's Office. Probably, by thus reducing the burden of Railways, the additional burden of important ministries, such as Information Technology and Information & Broadcasting, have been thrust upon the shoulders of Vaishnaw. He is not a super-human to be able to manage these many ministries with equal dedication.

Utilising Railways for political gains is nothing new. In 1995, when Suresh Kalmadi was the railway minister under the premiership of Narasimha Rao, the ministry took journalists from all over the country to cover the inauguration of a project at a place within the vicinity of the border areas of three states -- Orissa, undivided Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The Prime minister was to arrive from Delhi to cut the ribbons. There was a great hue and cry. Rail tracks were laid cutting through the hills with the aid of Japanese funds as well as technology. A railway officer tipped this writer (which became an exclusive story) that an incomplete project was being inaugurated by the PM just for the sake of votes in an impending election in that area. The Japanese objection to the move was not paid heed by the rail ministry and the PMO.

Hence, even after 29 years, one can fully understand the reasons for the Prime minister flagging off Vande Bharat trains before the 2024 general election.

Although, four decades ago, my initial experience as a daily commuter in local trains wasn't good. There were many shortfalls. Engines would fail midway, there wouldn't be water in municipal taps, there would be a sudden bomb blast in an area, rampage by ruffians, a stream of carriages lying stranded across the level crossings not allowing to close the gate, roadblock protests by political parties --- there were many reasons for the stopping of railway wheels that were beyond the control of the rail administration.  However, lack of skill among railway employees and of their dedication and sincerity were never seen.

One such instance of skill in the Railways was when this writer came across a high degree of strictness in adhering to the eligibility yardsticks in the appointment of human resources. At that time, I worked in a weekly covering all sorts of employment news. In that connection, I was a regular visitor to the regional office of Railway Recruitment Board, (popularly known as RRB) in Kolkata. I didn't find much difference in the yardsticks of physical fitness, besides qualifications in respect of jobs in technical posts in the Railways, police, military and paramilitary personnel.

These days, many people in such posts are supplied by contractors. They neither have the fitness, nor the skills and experience. The poor pay structure of the contractor firms can't attract people with high skill and fitness.

The scenario in the Railway has changed so that now casual employees with low skills are manning more than one technical section, including maintenance. The most important aspect is that in the event of an unusual occurrence, it is difficult to attribute any accountability on them.

How powerful the clout of contractor firms in the Railways became apparent in the incident at Gomo, not far from Dhanbad. On May 29, last year, six labourers died due to electrocution while working on the rail track. They were all engaged by a contractor firm. Surprisingly, although employees of a private establishment were found working on the track, the enquiry revealed that no authorisation from the Railway was taken.

Another problem is the high degree of one-upmanship and interference by the Operation and Signalling wings, which are not keeping passenger safety in mind while racing to achieve punctuality. Moreover, the sluggishness of the top brass in the Railways and the keeping the railway minister “inactive”, have taken a heavy toll. The huge vacancies of over three lakh posts and the added workload have created a sense of great despair and dissatisfaction among employees.

During the course of preceding 20-25 years, Indian Railways have turned into a strange establishment.

The rail ministry has no competitor, it’s virtually a monopoly organisation. And now, ‘Modi Rail’ has taken over, with the display of the Prime Minister's photographs and selfie-points. It's not impossible for someone to think that Narendra Modi is the rail minister. But, the scenario inside is different. It's high time the country gets an answer to the question, as to how much of Indian Railways still belongs to the government.

The writer is Executive Editor, The Wall, and former Senior Editor, Times of India. The views are personal.