INVESTMENT PLANNING TO IMPROVE SAFETY ON INDIAN RAILWAYS

1. International Railway Safety Conference 2007 Goa, India INVESTMENT PLANNING TO IMPROVE SAFETY ON INDIAN RAILWAYS Presentation by M.C.Murali, Chief Safety Officer, Southern Railway, Indian Railways

2. Scheme of Presentation • Overview of Indian Railways • Focus on Safety and the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) • Accident and Equipment failure statistics to evaluate the impact of SRSF and identify further areas which need priority attention • Recommendations for future investments

3. Indian Railways - an Overview • Route Length: > 63,300 route kms • Broad, Metre and Narrow gauges • 28% of routes Electrified • Freight Traffic: > 700 million tonnes per year • Passenger Traffic: > 18 million passengers per day • Employees: 1.5 million • Under the control of a single administration • Government owned and yearly budget passed by the Parliament

4. Focus on Railway Safety • Government have constituted Special Committees periodically to address the railway safety concerns and make recommendations. The latest of such committees called Railway Safety Review Committee (Justice Khanna Committee) made two important recommendations in 1999: • Sanction of a one-time non-lapsable grant for replacement of over-aged assets • Indian Railways to have a long term Corporate Safety Plan • The first item led to the Sanction of a “Special Railway Safety Fund” (SRSF) of Rs. 170 Billion (US $ 4 Billion) • In pursuance of the second item a Corporate Safety Plan for the ten year period 2003-2013 was formulated

5. Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF)

6. Accident Statistics

7. Trend of Total Number of Accidents and Derailments

8. Derailments and LC Accidents as a Percentage of Total number of Accidents

9. Trend of Accidents at Level Crossings

10. Average number of Casualties and Damages per Accident (2005-06) Persons killed and injured per Accident Cost of Damages in millions Rs. per Accident

11. Trend of Selected Equipment Failures Rail Failures: Have shown distinct reduction after the track renewal works taken up under SRSF

12. Trend of Selected Equipment Failures Poor brake power: Has come down to negligible levels but no correlation to inputs from SRSF

13. Trend of Selected Equipment Failures Train Parting: Continues to remain high. Not much inputs from SRSF

14. Trend of Selected Equipment Failures Coach Detachments: Have come down steadily, but inputs from SRSF were minimal

15. Trend of Selected Equipment Failures Signal Failures: Continues to remain high, in spite of significant inputs from SRSF

16. Recommendations – Level Crossings • As a long-term measure, unprotected level crossings should be eliminated either by providing barriers or grade separators. Cost-effective limited-use subways could help to replace a large number of minor LCs • In the interim period, investments in educating road users through mass media and direct contact programmes can help • Train approach warnings may help to a limited extent if a cost effective design can be evolved

17. Recommendations – Collisions • Auxiliary warning system (AWS) has been in operation on some suburban sections • Trials are being conducted with a GPS-based Anti-Collision Device (ACD) developed by Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd • Train protection system (ETCS-Level-1) is also under installation in a few selected routes • A reliable and effective device to reduce dependence on drivers is essentially required

18. Recommendations – Asset Reliability • Reliability of signalling equipments needs to be improved on priority since many accidents occur during such failures • Equipments to detect rail flaws in a faster manner like Self-Propelled Ultrasonic Rail Testing (SPURT) cars • Equipments to facilitate condition monitoring and maintenance to make a shift from the current time-based maintenance system

19. Recommendations – Coaching Stock • Use of materials that prevent spread of fire and minimise emission of toxic fumes in case of fire. • Tight-lock couplers and interior design to minimise injuries in case of accidents • Adopt new designs to prevent coach capsizing in case of derailments • Wayside detectors for hot boxes and infringing parts

20. Recommendations – Tank Wagons • Four-wheeled tank wagons have been identified as accident prone because of their rigidity and RSRC had recommended their withdrawal, but they are still in operation. More than the freight train derailments caused by them, the infringements caused to adjacent tracks could be really dangerous • Investments to replace these wagons will need to be provided on priority

21. Recommendations – Natural Calamities • Landslips, Boulder-falling, Tracks getting submerged during rains, Tracks/bridges washed off by flash floods, Trees falling and Cyclones are some of the vulnerabilities caused due to natural causes. • The present mechanism to guard against such threats is mostly track patrolling by Railway staff • Investments to prevent such occurrences wherever feasible or for installing reliable monitoring systems are considered essential

22. Recommendations – Training • Considering the fact that many of the accidents are attributed to human failure and many of the safety enhancement works will centre around new technologies and equipments, investment in training of staff needs to be made • Loco simulators have been introduced recently under SRSF for training loco drivers. This could be extended further • Improved methods for training and more of simulation model training schemes need to be introduced

23. Conclusion • Depreciation Reserve Fund should be systematically managed to ensure timely asset replacement and this activity should not be treated as an investment to improve safety • Investments for Safety improvement should be made to eliminate vulnerabilities and to minimise damages even in case of accidents occurring

24. Thank You