kakodkar committee report

10/13/2014 A railway mission to fantasyland - The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-railway-mission-to-fantasyland/article2985186.ece?css=print 1/3

The Hindu

Opinion » Lead

Published: March 12, 2012 00:25 IST | Updated: March 13, 2012 00:10 IST

A railway mission to fantasyland

K. Balakesari

The Kakodkar Committee report on railway safety is likely to meet the fate of many other committee reports, particularlybecause of the huge scale of investment it proposes in a short time span.

A little over two years after the publication of the Vision 2020 document aimed at catapulting the Indian Railways(IR) into the forefront of world railways, the Kakodkar Committee on railway safety has just published its report, withplans that require an outlay of Rs. 1 lakh crore. And even as that committee's recommendations are being digested,the Sam Pitroda Committee has submitted its plans for the modernisation of IR at a cost of Rs.5.6 lakh crore. In themidst of a severe resource crunch, it would seem that the Railways are faced with a problem of plenty by way of multi-lakh crore rupee plans!

Financial implications

While the Kakodkar Committee has produced a comprehensive report on railway safety within six months — a recordof sorts — with many useful and refreshingly novel recommendations, it is in the area of funding its proposals that theCommittee's projections are literally “out of this world.” The IR's Vision 2020 (2009), which is yet to take off,envisages an annual outlay of Rs.1.4 lakh crore over a decade with an estimated annual gross budgetary support (GBS)of Rs.50,000 crore by the Central government. Now the Kakodkar Committee has recommended an annualinvestment of Rs. 20,000 crore for five years, of which Rs.10,000 crore is effectively a GBS by way of a matchingCentral grant and deferred dividend. In the past, the GBS has not exceeded Rs.20,000 crore in a year. Therefore,expecting a 300 per cent hike in GBS (Rs.20,000 crore to Rs.60,000 crore for Vision 2020 and the Kakodkar SafetyPlan put together) for just one sector of the economy from a government facing multiple competing demands andsevere fiscal constraints is, to put it mildly, in the realm of fantasy. Such projections only serve to spread cynicism allround.

A report that clicked!

The Kakodkar Committee was set up in the aftermath of the derailment of Kalka Mail near Fatehpur in July 2011,resulting in the death of 71 passengers and injuries to 264, and a few other serious accidents. History repeats itself.About 14 years ago, a similar committee headed by Justice H.R. Khanna was set up in the aftermath of another majorderailment in September 1997 (Derailment of Train No.8033, the Ahmedabad-Howrah Express , killing 88 andinjuring 400).



However, contrary to the fate of most committee reports, the recommendations of the Khanna Committee were takenseriously and followed up to a large extent. In fact, the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) of Rs.17,000 crore set upin 2001 and the Corporate Safety Plan 2003-2013 (CSP) unveiled in August 2003 arose out of the recommendationsof the Khanna Committee.

While reviewing the safety performance of IR over the last five years, the Kakodkar Committee has not highlighted thefact that the target set in CSP 2003 for reducing the frequency of consequential accidents from 0.44 to 0.17 accidentsper million train kilometres has already been bettered. The irony is that even as one more report seeking funds inlakhs of crores of rupees to improve safety on the Railways has been presented, there has been no attempt so far tofind out what went right after investing Rs.17,000 crore in six years through the SRSF.

What price safety?

The Kakodkar Committee has made a number of references to “zero tolerance” to accidents. While this is acommendable ideal to strive for, achieving it is almost impossible unless there is access to unlimited resources. Incontrast, CSP 2003 had, for the first time, prescribed target rate of accidents overall (the number of accidents permillion train kilometres) and target reductions in numbers in different types of accidents, sought to be achieved bythe end of the CSP period (2012-13). The only category for which the target was specified as zero was train collisions,on the (misplaced) expectation that the Anti-Collision Device (ACD) or the Raksha Kavach would be successfullyintroduced all over the system by the end of the CSP period.

This leads to the question: “What price railway safety?” The Kakodkar Committee has proposed an investment ofRs.50,000 crore solely on the removal of all level-crossings, for completely eliminating LC-related accidents andcasualties. The average number of persons killed in LC accidents over the five-year period 2006-07 to 2010-11 was 145(According to KCR, the number of persons killed in all types of consequential train accidents over the five-year periodwas 1,227. Fifty-nine per cent of this was due to level crossing accidents, which work out to 724 in five years or 145 peryear.) This works out to approximately Rs.70 crore for averting each death at a level crossing. It may be argued thathuman life is priceless but the moot point is whether this order of magnitude of investment is practically feasible oreven justified in a climate of extreme scarcity of resources.

Organisational change

The Committee's recommendation suggesting organisational changes in the Railway Board for creating a moreresponsive and effective “ecosystem” for safety on the Railways, while laudable, is overly optimistic. No organisationvoluntarily commits “hara-kiri”. The fate of the Indian Railways Report (2001), better known as the Rakesh MohanCommittee Report, is too recent and well known to need recounting here.

The Committee has rightly drawn attention to the “implementation bug” afflicting the Railways. A related disease notmentioned is the “acute policy shift syndrome” (APSS). With each change of government at the Centre or theMinister, there is a tendency to view with suspicion, if not outright contempt and ridicule, the policies of the previousregime and to reverse them. A recent example of the APSS syndrome is the fate of the Anti-Collision Device. What wasperceived to be the lynchpin of the strategy to eliminate all collisions by the end of the CSP period has been reducedover a decade to almost a footnote in the Kakodkar Report.

National Railway policy

If implementation efficiency is to improve, there has to be a broad consensus across the political spectrum on keypolicy issues concerning the Railways such as the growth strategy, organisational issues, financial structure, safetyrelated investments, fare and tariff policy and meeting public service obligations. If there can be a National TelecomPolicy, why not a National Railway Policy?

Need for Plan B

While the Kakodkar Committee has brought in fresh perspectives in a number of areas concerning railway safety,there is a real danger that the report will meet the fate of many other committees and reports concerning theRailways, particularly because of the huge scale of the proposed investments within a short time span. It is, therefore,essential to have a ‘Plan B' ready with more realistically achievable targets and investment profile. Near totalelimination of train collisions and consequential casualties is obviously one area that needs to be prioritised in such aplan.

Interestingly, two key recommendations of the Kakodkar Committee require no investment at all: an immediate endto the practice of announcing a “laundry list” of new train services in every Railway budget and increase in passengerfares. Will the Railway Minister display his commitment to implementing the recommendations of a committeeconstituted under his watch, by announcing the acceptance of at least these two recommendations in the Railwaybudget?

(K. Balakesari is former Member Staff, Railway Board. Email: [email protected])

Keywords: Kakodkar Committee, railway safety, train collisions, Railway budget, Indian Railways, RailwayBoard, Indian Railways Report, National Railway policy



Printable version | Oct 13, 2014 2:41:00 AM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-railway-mission-to-fantasyland/article2985186.ece

© The Hindu

kakodkar committee report

Documents