Essay – Less Accidents or High Speed – Which is more important for Indian Railways? | SBI PO, BOB Manipal, NICL AO 2017 Descriptive

Right from the introduction by
the British, the Indian Railways have come a long way. From being the third
largest rail network after US and China, and owning the world’s longest
platform in the world in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh; Indian Railways are now
equipped with electric-locomotive, diesel-locomotive, and passenger coach
factories. But, it still has a long way to go as compared to its counterparts.

In December 2016, India witnessed
the most tragic accidents in the history of world railways, when Sealdah Ajmer
Express derailed in Kanpur. When recent surveys are picked up, it is seen that
maximum fatal deaths in India are in a railway accident, road and air being
close behind. Although it is appreciable that the government is keen on
touching the bar set by China in their railways but, before that it is also
necessary to get inspired by their record of rail accidents. According to
tabloids, the last railway tragedy that China faced was in 2011 in which around
40 people died.

It is true that high speed rail
is one of the essential requisite if we want to bridge the gap of developing
and developed country. But, the fact that, India still holds the top rank in
railway accidents in the world list, cannot be ignored. Therefore it is
important to achieve higher safety before aiming for higher speed.

It is rightly stated that nothing
is more important than one’s life. The highly set targets will be difficult to
achieve if lives of people travelling are always at a risk of meeting an
accident. High speed will attain lesser accolade if the death toll is still on
the rise. Where railways still is the main source of long-distance travel for
Indian people, it is important to emphasise on the safety measure taken by the
Rail ministry. The reason behind this lag, be it insufficient funding or
technical inability, should be looked into before aiming for bullet train
speed.