A road and transport expert for “Sky News Arabia” presents what is behind the recurrence of train accidents in India, the large number of their victims, and what it takes to reduce them in the railways, which are one of the oldest railways in India. the world, after its creation in 1853, and the busiest.
Circulating video footage showed the wreckage of two trains turning into a huge iron block, around which hundreds of young men and rescuers gathered in an attempt to rescue stranded people.
According to railway authorities in the South East, the Howrah Superfast Express train derailed and collided with the Coromandel Express on Friday in the Indian state of Odisha.
The most famous train accidents in India
India has seen fatal train crashes, with casualties sometimes reaching over 500 people.
The deadliest incidents were:
Bihar train in 1981
It derailed and fell into a river, killing between 500 and 800 people.
Bukharay train 2016
Collided with a crowd during a festival celebration, killing 150 people and injuring 200.
Train from Fatipur 2011
It derailed due to speed, killing 70 and injuring 300.
Amritsar Train 2018
It derailed, leaving behind 50 dead and 200 injured.
old and dangerous
Tariq Sharaf, a road and transport expert, speaks to Sky News Arabia about the pressures under which India’s rail network operates:
The railway transports 25 million citizens there daily, and goods with a capacity of two million tons per day. It extends over 65,000 km across the country. India has 14,000 passenger and freight trains. It employs more than 1.5 million people. The infrastructure is very weak and maintenance is slow and disproportionate to frequent use. The train driving systems are also weak; The movement of 10,000 trains is digitally controlled with many errors. The intensive use of the population made it difficult to replace and renew, in addition to the lack of awareness. The railways cross markets and forests and these are dangerous routes that require skilled drivers, which are not available there. The world tends to reduce reliance on the human element in dealing with interruptions, unlike in India. It is managed manually. The investment in the railway has cost the government £650 million, but it still needs a lot of effort to avoid these accidents. The railways are entirely state owned and the private sector does not support its development.
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