Dear Ashwini
Vaishnawji ( Railway Minister )
Yesterday , there
was a train accident near Balasore in which 233 persons got killed ( as of this
writing ) and 900 + got seriously injured. On TV , you were seen examining the
accident site with railway officers
6 years ago, there
was a similar train accident in Andhra Pradesh which killed 41 persons . That
made me send following e-mail to our Cabinet Ministers
I have no clue
whether any of my suggestions ( in that 6 year old email ) ever got implemented
or not . But , please do NOT implement any “ Inquiry “ ( High-level or Low-
level )
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.hemenparekh.ai / 03 June 2023
Sunday, 22 January 2017
Why always
a " High Level Inquiry " ?
Yesterday , there was a train
accident in Andhra Pradesh
when 41 persons
died
This was the THIRD such serious train
accident in past 3 months
May be twentieth such accident in
past 10 years
Railway Minister has ordered a "
high level inquiry " ( apart from usual ex-gratia payments )
Being an ignoramus, I wondered,
" Why a high level inquiry ? Why not a low level inquiry ? "
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks !
All those previous " high level
inquiry " reports are already on the server of the Railway Ministry , in
word format
All that the committee appointed for
this purpose has to do is :
* Change the Date / Time /
Location of the accident
* Change the name of the train
* Change the appendix carrying
the names of the victims
* Change the names of the
members of the Inquiry Committee ( mostly unnecessary ! )
* Change the date of submission
of the report
In fact , by the time the Members of
the Inquiry Committee return to Delhi , after inspection of the accident site ,
the departmental data-entry operator has already made these changes and kept
the print out ready for the signature of the Members !
Now , who says , Railway Ministry is
inefficient ?
Should however, Shri Suresh Prabhu be interested in a " LOW LEVEL SUGGESTION "
for " how to prevent train
accidents "
, I request him to read once again , my following email ( 20 Nov 2016 ) :
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A Case of Misplaced Priority ?
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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