New Delhi:

The Railway Board has set up a committee to find out the reasons for the violation of speed restrictions by train drivers at various points between originating and destination stations which is detrimental to safe train operations.

According to sources, the Board came into action after recent incidents in which two train drivers violated the speed restriction of 20 kmph at a river bridge, which was under maintenance and drove their trains at 120 kmph speed.

In the first incident, the loco pilot and assistant loco pilot of the Gatiman Express, India’s first semi-high-speed train which runs at 160 kmph speed between Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi and Virangana Lakshmibai Jhansi Junction in Uttar Pradesh, violated the advisory speed restriction between Jajau and Mania railway station near Agra Cantt.

Just a couple of days after the Gatiman incident, the drivers of another train Malwa Express, which runs between Katra (Jammu) and Indore (Madhya Pradesh), too committed a similar violation at the same spot and steered the train at 120 kmph.

Soon after these incidents, the Railway Board on June 3 issued a circular to all zones and informed, “Railway Board has constituted a committee to review the caution orders being issued to Loco Pilots and Train Managers (guards).” “The committee desires to interact with Loco Pilots through video conference to understand the issues related to caution orders at the field level,” the circular added, asking all zones to nominate loco pilots from each division to attend a meeting on June 5.

“Over 180 loco pilots and loco inspectors took part in the meeting and came out with various suggestions to ensure that speed restrictions are followed in letter and spirit,” said a loco pilot, who was part of the virtual meeting.

The Railways imposes speed restrictions for the safe operation of the trains for various reasons such as track condition, ongoing track repair work, old railway bridges and station yard remodelling etc.

The Railway officials say that before boarding the engine, the loco pilots and their assistants obtain a complete route chart along with advisories and cautionary speed limits from the concerned operating department and they are supposed to maintain the speed accordingly.

During operation, the assistant driver calls out loudly these advisories and cautions and the driver repeats it to confirm.

“In the meeting, various suggestions came, For instance, a section of drivers suggested that a train guard should remind a driver on a walkie-talkie 3 km before the starting point of the speed restriction. This practice is being followed by the guards of Kota division and a request was made to make it applicable across the board in Railways,” said another loco pilot, who attended the meeting.

“Some drivers wanted the caution order to be given on bold letters with bigger font size on A4 size white paper. They also said that drivers should be issued different colour highlighters to mark the restrictions for their convenience,” he added.

The participants also said that it was also discussed in the meeting whether permanent speed restriction (PSR) should also be made a part of the caution order.

“Normally only temporary caution orders are given to the drivers on a paper sheet but a suggestion was made that PSR should also be mentioned,” said a loco pilot.

“The committee will look into these suggestions and deliberate upon other means to decide if there is a need to amend the operation norms concerning speed restrictions in the interest of safe train operations,” said a source in the Railway Board.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A view of the production of Vande Bharat Coaches at Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. File
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

With an outlay of ₹2.40 lakh crore for the financial year 2023-24 compared to ₹1.40 lakh crore in the FY22-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the outlay for the railways is nine times the amount provided in 2013-2014.

The Ministry of Railways was able to spend ₹1.35 lakh crore in FY2021-22, budget documents note. 

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways said that because of lesser allocation to the railways in the past, the true potential of the sector had not been achieved. “The current outlay will be beneficial for 800 crore passengers who annually travel by railways,” Mr. Vaishnaw said. 

The higher outlay, he said, will be used to ramp up production of Vande Bharat trains, which will now be manufactured from four sites, as opposed to the existing one site in Chennai. “Sonipat in Haryana, Rae Bareilly in U.P., and Latur in Maharashtra will be added as manufacturing sites,” he said.  

Mr. Vaishnaw added, “Eight Vande Bharat trains have now covered an equivalent of travelling 52 times along the perimeter of the earth. So we now know that the product is well tested and stabilised. It is now time to ramp up supply chain and production. Currently we manufacture one Vande Bharat train in seven days. We want to ramp this up to two to three trains every week.”

Mr. Vaishnaw pointed out that operating ratio has stabilised at 98.22% against 107.39% in 2021-22. Operating ratio is the amount of money the railways has to spend to earn ₹100. A lower operating ratio implies better financial health. “We hope to reduce this number further as the entire electrification process is complete — 85% of the railway network has been electrified,” he said. 

He also said that a train run fully on hydrogen will be ready by December 2023, and will be first run on the Kalka-Shimla heritage circuit. The Ministry of Railways is developing economic and social corridors through the railway network: “These corridors will target hilly areas, port areas, tribal areas through the Janjatiya Gaurav corridor,” he said. 

On the work for the bullet trains, the first of which will run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, pegged to be commissioned not before 2026, Mr. Vaishnaw said that the previous Shiv Sena government had made it hard to obtain clearances for the project in Maharashtra. “Now the government has changed and clearances are easier to come by,” he added. 

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