IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again...
A safe and secure train journey requires an all round effort!
With Indian Railways (IR) carrying over 10 billion passengers every year and operating around 16,000 trains every day, covering a four time distance between the earth and the moon every day, it's a case study in itself. A few months back, the IR announced a transformational initiative ' to envisage12 high-speed railway corridors where trains can operate at a speed of 250-350 km per hour. Now, juxtapose this with the number of train accidents that occurred recently. Since April 2009 till the end of July 2010, over 15 major railway accidents occurred. In such a scenario, the feasibility of having high-speed railway corridors (with respect to railway and passengers safety) seems quite ridiculous. While the IR is yet to accelerate the pace of its safety drive and safety in train operation is still a concern for the government, high-speed railway corridors is not a welcome move.
In recent years, Indian Railways has witnessed over 350 accidents a year. However in order to reduce railway accidents, the Centre had floated a Corporate Safety Plan in 2003. High-speed trains that exceeded 250 km per hour, were successfully launched as early as 1964 in Japan and adopted in France in 1981. For many years, infrastructure and capacity improvement projects were limited to building more domestic airports and roads. High-speed trains tend to emit only one-fourth and one-third of CO2 per 100-passenger-km that aircraft and private cars do respectively. Japan has shown that this is possible as well as necessary for the success of the system. However, European countries have demonstrated that it is essential to develop the intra-city transport network and integrate it with the system so that the ridership can increase and travel can be seamless. Improving the stations, instituting sensitive pricing, and putting in place an accessible ticketing system are equally important. High-speed trains can facilitate balanced regional urban development and this is of special relevance to Indian conditions. With careful planning, urban growth can be shifted to and induced in mid-size towns connected by these trains and further crowding of large metropolitan cities avoided.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently revealed that railway managements are under-utilising (at the tune of 50 per cent) their funds allocated for safety work. The report further highlighted delays in the railways' commitment over safety-related projects. Most of the upgrade and modernisation plans were behind their promised scheduled. The IR ' in spite of being India's large employer ' have over 8,500 posts vacant in the railway safety department. Talking about railway infrastructure, the scenario here too look quite bleak. Despite a decade-old report suggesting urgent refurbishment and replacement of 50,000 railways bridges and over 10,000 km of track, not much heed was ever paid in this regard. However, it's no exaggeration to say that the fastest train service in India will accelerate and resemble India's pace of growth, but the country should ponder over reducing accidents rates before conceiving other plans.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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A safe and secure train journey requires an all round effort!
With Indian Railways (IR) carrying over 10 billion passengers every year and operating around 16,000 trains every day, covering a four time distance between the earth and the moon every day, it's a case study in itself. A few months back, the IR announced a transformational initiative ' to envisage12 high-speed railway corridors where trains can operate at a speed of 250-350 km per hour. Now, juxtapose this with the number of train accidents that occurred recently. Since April 2009 till the end of July 2010, over 15 major railway accidents occurred. In such a scenario, the feasibility of having high-speed railway corridors (with respect to railway and passengers safety) seems quite ridiculous. While the IR is yet to accelerate the pace of its safety drive and safety in train operation is still a concern for the government, high-speed railway corridors is not a welcome move.
In recent years, Indian Railways has witnessed over 350 accidents a year. However in order to reduce railway accidents, the Centre had floated a Corporate Safety Plan in 2003. High-speed trains that exceeded 250 km per hour, were successfully launched as early as 1964 in Japan and adopted in France in 1981. For many years, infrastructure and capacity improvement projects were limited to building more domestic airports and roads. High-speed trains tend to emit only one-fourth and one-third of CO2 per 100-passenger-km that aircraft and private cars do respectively. Japan has shown that this is possible as well as necessary for the success of the system. However, European countries have demonstrated that it is essential to develop the intra-city transport network and integrate it with the system so that the ridership can increase and travel can be seamless. Improving the stations, instituting sensitive pricing, and putting in place an accessible ticketing system are equally important. High-speed trains can facilitate balanced regional urban development and this is of special relevance to Indian conditions. With careful planning, urban growth can be shifted to and induced in mid-size towns connected by these trains and further crowding of large metropolitan cities avoided.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently revealed that railway managements are under-utilising (at the tune of 50 per cent) their funds allocated for safety work. The report further highlighted delays in the railways' commitment over safety-related projects. Most of the upgrade and modernisation plans were behind their promised scheduled. The IR ' in spite of being India's large employer ' have over 8,500 posts vacant in the railway safety department. Talking about railway infrastructure, the scenario here too look quite bleak. Despite a decade-old report suggesting urgent refurbishment and replacement of 50,000 railways bridges and over 10,000 km of track, not much heed was ever paid in this regard. However, it's no exaggeration to say that the fastest train service in India will accelerate and resemble India's pace of growth, but the country should ponder over reducing accidents rates before conceiving other plans.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM BBA MBA Institute: Student Notice Board
Indian universities and higher education institutes seem to be caught in a time warp teaching things
The hunt for hostel and paying guest (PG) accommodation for students
Best Colleges for Vocational Courses in India
INDIA'S BEST COLLEGES, INSTITUTES and UNIVERSITIES
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