Yesterday , there was a terrible train accident near
Kanpur
As per latest reports , some 100 persons got killed and
around 100 got injured
Government was quick to announce a compensation of Rs 2
lakhs to the kin of those dead and Rs 50,000 to the injured
So , to the Government , apart from the loss to the
property , the ECONOMIC
LOSS was , approx Rs 2.5 Crore
And if someone were to fight this case in the Courts ( for
next 5 years ? ) , the Court might award Rs 1 crore per dead ( loss of earning
capacity at Rs 2.5 lakh per year for 40 years )
That would add another Rs 100 Crore of " Economic Cost ",
to the government
But what about the EMOTIONAL LOSS
of the bereaved family ?
It is just not possible to attach a monetary value to
the life-long sufferings of those families
I believe , we have lost ( on ave ) , some 50 lives to major
train accidents , each year for the past 22 years ( not counting ave of 10
persons who get run over by Mumbai local trains , EVERY
DAY ! )
View this in the background of Government plan to spend
Rs 1,00,000 CRORES ,
for a Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmadabad, which will transport 600
persons in 2 hours , in place of the current travel time of 8 hours
So , what will we gain for this enormous "
Economic Cost " ?
Some people will save 6 hours of travel time !
Even as 50 persons continue to die each year in train
accidents , which are , largely preventable !
And , very likely , implementing technological solution
for saving these lives would cost , less
than Rs 1,000 cr !
Major causes of train accidents are :
# Fractured rails ( as is suspected in the
present case )
# Loose
anchor bolts
# Sagging
rails due to washed out foundation
# Jammed
track-switching mechanisms
# Faulty
Signals...etc
And , of course , " human errors of judgment
"
How come such train accidents rarely happen in
Developed / Advanced countries , despite the fact that their trains run 2 / 4
times as fast as ours ?
Simple answer :
They have implemented technological solutions ( Data Acquisition
Devices and Software ) , which , not only monitor / detect the "
faults / failures " described above , but , they alert the train-traffic
management team in real time , on large screens in their TRAFFIC CONTROL
ROOM
And , if the person watching that TRAFFIC FAULT
SCREEN , is slow to respond ( to take a corrective action ) , the
software will bring the train to a halt , on its own !
If our ISRO scientists / engineers can detect a tiny
fuel leak in our rockets / satellites , from thousands of kilometers away ,-
and make course correction in milliseconds , there is no reason to doubt their capability
to find a technical solution to prevent train accidents
I have no doubt that Shri Suresh Prabhu will
re-arrange his priorities !
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21 Nov 2016
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs
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