{"id":247253,"date":"2023-06-09T19:52:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T14:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=247253"},"modified":"2023-06-09T19:52:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T14:22:56","slug":"getting-railway-safety-back-on-track-after-odisha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/getting-railway-safety-back-on-track-after-odisha\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting railway safety back on track after Odisha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cGetting railway safety back on track after Odisha\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 9th June 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Disaster management<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to rail accident<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>A major train accident happened at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district, Odisha, on the evening of June 2.<\/p>\n

What may be the possible causes of the accident?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There is interlocking of signals<\/strong> and routes through a series of relays and logic gates<\/strong>. It ensures that a train is guided by signals to a route to avoid an encounter with another train. In this case, this interlocking might be overridden by manual intervention. <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two possible causes. In the first, it was done by a signal maintaine<\/strong>r who has access to the equipment hut or relay room<\/strong>. He may have acted in haste to expedite the maintenance work<\/strong> so that the running train is not affected.<\/p>\n

In the second instance, it is done with criminal intention<\/strong> to cause an accident.<\/p>\n

However, it is quite surprising to understand that a signal maintainer can meddle with the system and cause havoc of this magnitude.<\/p>\n

The heart of the interlocking equipmen<\/strong>t is housed in a central relay room <\/strong>in the main station building. The station master and the maintainer have keys to a double lock.<\/p>\n

The tampering with equipment<\/strong> in this room is possible by the maintainer, in connivance with the station master. But, the chances of this are low.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are some pieces of remote equipment <\/strong>installed in huts and location boxes<\/strong>. The access to these is possible only by the authorised maintainer<\/strong>. The possibilities of tampering are greater in such locations.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward to avoid such types of accidents?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Stronger safeguards<\/strong> against such misadventures are needed.<\/p>\n

The provision of a double lock system<\/strong> even for remote huts in railway stations can be explored. But it increases the chances of train delays.<\/p>\n

This is an age of mobile phones and IT applications, and it is possible to have a system of multiple digital authorisations<\/strong> to access such equipment without the physical movement <\/strong>of staff other than the maintainers.<\/p>\n

The rail network in India is largely saturated,<\/strong> the number of train services has gone up exponentially. There is a need to fill all vacancies <\/strong>in the safety categories.<\/p>\n

The provision of Kavach<\/strong><\/a> could not have prevented this accident. But other aspects of safety do demand faster implementation of Kavach<\/strong>. This would not only enhance rail safety but also improve the sectional capacity to run more trains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cGetting railway safety back on track after Odisha\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 9th June 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Disaster management Relevance– Issues related to rail accident News- A major train accident happened at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district, Odisha, on the evening of June 2. What… Continue reading Getting railway safety back on track after Odisha<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-247253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":4,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1699028412},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}