Underfunding of Safety related Rail-Track Works is a main underlying Factor for the recent Spate of fatal Derailment-Disasters. India has to catch-up the Investment Backlog under the Vision for modern sound and healthy Rail-Tracks for a World-Class Railway.
Let’s hope that the new leadership will overcome the deficiency in making decisions in favour of modern, safe, sound and healthy rail-tracks on all routes of high track-quality for close-to-zero derailments and for overall low life cycle costs. India must invest by far more in track infrastructure and assets than in the past to catch up the accumulated investment back-log of the past decades. As far as track quality is concerned, the demands and the realities differ widely.
An Audit elaborated by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), covering the period from April 1, 2016, to 31 March, 2017, reveals multiple lapses in the railway-track maintenance plans.
The new leadership want to “CHANGE THE FUTURE OF INDIAN RAILWAYS” in order to “TAKE INDIAN RAILWAYS TO THE LEAGUE OF WORLD-CLASS RAILWAYS”. The Railway has been declared as “LIFE-LINE OF THE COUNTRY”.
However, a WORLD-CLASS RAILWAY needs MODERN WORLD-CLASS RAILWAY-TRACKS OF HIGH QUALITY. In this respect, expectations of the new leadership and track-realities differ widely.
In the past decades, IR has not invested enough to keep the quality of all its rail-tracks fit for the increased traffic load, they have to carry. The Indian Government is pushing in front a huge investment and organisation/performance backlog for keeping all its rail-tracks in sound and healthy condition.
A backlog of track-renewal, rehabilitation, re-engineering, upgrading, modernization and strengthening has accumulated over the years. Now, it will cost a huge amount of capital investment schemes to catch up this backlog. The accrued debts will not be paid off with the annual renewal of 3500 km rail tracks from about 115 000 km total length of tracks. To renew 3500 km rail-track per year even does not compensate the present ageing of ailing rail-tracks, ageing under the strain of the increased traffic load.
A Picture Gallery in Annexure IV delineates “archaic” Rail-Track Works.
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