The September 9 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express tragedy highlights, once again, the need to adopt better rail safety measures.
THE accident involving the Delhi-bound Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express on September 9 at Rafigunj, Bihar, is the second major rail accident in the country this year. The earlier big one was the derailment of the New Delhi-Patna Shramjeevi Express at Jaunpur on May 12, in which 12 people were killed. With 129 people dead and hundreds injured, the September 9 accident is the worst in the case of the Rajdhani services, the star series of the Railways.
The cause of the accident is still a matter of conjecture. Hours after the train derailed on the grand chord section of the Eastern Railway, 1.5 km from Rafigunj in Aurangabad district, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar exonerated the Railways by stating that the accident appeared to be the result of sabotage and that the fishplates lying by the side of the track pointed to such a possibility.
Insisting that there was no lapse on the part of the Railways, Railway Board Chairman I.I.M.S. Rana blamed the naxalite outfit, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), for the sabotage. The area around the accident site, near the Dhawa river, is known for its naxalite presence. According to Railway officials, there were rumours of an imminent attack by the MCC. The involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was also not ruled out. However, later, the MCC released a press statement denying any role in the accident. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani is reported to have told the Railway Minister and senior officials not to indulge in speculation and to hold their comments until the Commissioner of Railway Safety submitted his report.
A probe was carried out on September 16 and 17 by Mahesh Chand, Commissioner of Railway Safety, Eastern Circle, at Gaya. Chand is expected to submit his report within three months.
The 2301 Up Rajdhani Express (via Gaya) left Howrah station at 5 p.m. on September 9, reportedly carrying 528 passengers and 60 additional railway staff. Around 10-45 p.m., the train, travelling at 130 km an hour, was crossing the bridge over the Dhawa between Rafigunj and Aurangabad stations when the derailment took place. According to witnesses, as the train derailed, the engine and the parcel van got detached from the rest of the train and continued moving down the track. The first bogie behind the engine fell over the bridge on to the banks of the Dhawa and the coaches behind it AS2, 3, 4 and 5 followed suit, while the next three coaches AS6, 7 and 8 hung precariously from the bridge. A portion of the bridge collapsed, and the other coaches fell in different directions. Apart from the immediate impact of the accident, suffocation is believed to have been a major cause of the deaths. With the windows of the air-conditioned coaches sealed and the doors getting locked, a large number of passengers were virtually trapped.
Relief workers arrived at the site three hours after the derailment, but were not adequately equipped with gas-cutters and hammers to get through the mangled coaches and reach the passengers. Relief work was further hampered by bursts of rain.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president and former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav charged the Railway Board with negligence and ill-maintenance of infrastructure. "The bridge was old and badly maintained. It is the Railways that is to be blamed for the tragedy," he said. He demanded the resignation of Nitish Kumar and punishment for officials responsible for the maintenance of the bridge. According to Laloo Prasad, most of the railway bridges in Bihar are far from safe.
However, Eastern Railway officials claim that the bridge over the Dhawa was safe and in good condition. According to Soumitro Majumdar, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Eastern Railway, there was annual inspection of every bridge under the Railways and the bridge over the Dhawa was declared to be in good condition after it was inspected in March this year. The factors that are taken into consideration during inspection are the state of the foundation, bedrock, bearing, training and pier.
At a press conference in Kolkata, Majumdar said: "On a scale of one to five, five being the highest, the bridge's condition was ranked five". Moreover, according to Majumdar, a daily security check is conducted on tracks and bridges. "At least once in 24 hours, the tracks, which are divided in stretches of 8 to10 km, are inspected by gangmen," the CPRO said.
Apparently, major renovation and repair work was done twice on the 86 year old bridge once in 1928, when it was converted into an all-steel structure, and then 30 years later. Although railway officials insist that the bridge was maintained regularly, according to experts, old steel-structure bridges may be able to withstand the pressure of slower trains but are vulnerable to superfast trains such as the Rajdhani.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that it was a "grave accident'' and stressed the need for the Centre to focus on strengthening the basic infrastructure of the Railways rather than concentrating on the bifurcation of zonal divisions.
During an earlier visit to Delhi, the Chief Minister had urged the Centre to make the Railways more safe and secure. Immediately after the accident, Bhattacharjee sent a six-member team led by Minister of State for Civil Defence Sreekumar Mukherjee, which included doctors, by a special train to bring home the injured and other passengers.
Former Railway Minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee put the blame squarely on Nitish Kumar. According to her, had the safety measures suggested by her during her tenure as Railway Minister been implemented, a tragedy like this could have been avoided.
Another former Railway Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, said that the accident took place because of the "callous negligence" of safety standards.
