Why in News ?
The Indian Railways is back in the news after a freight train rammed into a passenger train on Sunday, June 16, near Siliguri in West Bengal, which left at least nine people dead and more than 40 injured.
Today’s News :
Since 1995, the country has witnessed seven deadly train accidents, five of which took more than 200 lives — the highest number of deaths, 358, was recorded in the Firozabad collision of 1995. The multiple train collision at Balasore in Odisha, about a year ago, claimed 287 lives. Together, these seven accidents took more than 1,600 lives.
Among railway planners, it is widely held that a large, densely populated developing country like India should have a strong railway system that can compete with road and air transport to serve the needs of the people and economy.
The Indian Railways has consistently lost market share in both passenger and freight streams. In fact, since 2010-12, the total volume of both freight and passenger traffic has stagnated or declined, while air and road modes have seen growth of 6-12 per cent each year.
Between 2014-15 and 2019-20, passenger traffic declined from 995 billion pass-km to 914 billion pass-km, and freight stagnated between 682 and 739 billion net tonne-km. For the period after 2019-20 to the present, the Railways has not made these traffic figures public.
It is no exaggeration that the Indian Railways (IR), which enjoys a monopoly on rail transportation, is facing a severe crisis.