When the 760 km long, engineering marvel, the Konkan Railway inaugurated on May 1998 meandering through the Sahayadri hills, in the Konkan region witnessed the 609 Karwar Mumbai Central holiday special, mishap, hitting onto a boulder just near the mouth of the Navli tunnel (one of the 88 such tunnels) near Kankavli in Ratnagiri District Maharashtra little did one realise that on the same day 22.6.2001 the Madras bound Mangalore - Madras mail train found four of its bogies plunged into the river Kadalundi near Calicut in South India. In both cases the tragedies were large. It would be left for the Commissioner for Accidents to ascertain the cause of the accident to avert recurrence of the same but the following needs to be dealt with.
The terrain is prone to rock movements, landslides, erosion of loose clay, eruption or blockages of ground water etc. Hence despite premonsoon tests -lose scaling tests, geo nets or steel nets, cannot beat the nuances of nature. Above all the rumblings of over twelve trains up down on this routes daily with speeds ranging from 100 to 120 kms per hour is sufficient to ensure instability of rocks atop the hilly terrain, for which steel nets built as the one seen near the present accident site offer no solace to the boulders tossed from atop on the rails as this one did tragically. The satellite monitored Anti- collision device afford no detection alert for boulders man or stray cattle on the rails as is commonly believed. Both Engine driver M/s C.K. Johnson (KERALA) and Asst driver R.K.Gupta (UP) will agree in retrospection that it was perhaps a bit of overconfidence on their part to least suspect any boulder fall on this otherwise safe stretch. Moreso when another train had just passed through an hour ago. The anti collision device has also considerably increased the confidence of the engine drivers to afford an element of lethargy owing to routine. By and large drivers do excercise abundant caution or display sharp persevernce at areas where ritual lose scalings are conducted or when reaching S bend tunnels or near the 1798 bridges and mainly the 6.5 kms long tunnel. In any case with the fury of the monsoons just unleashing greater restraint and a cautious approach would have considerably reduced the casualities. But the Konkan Railway does need to equip itself better if not to match the international standards of safety atleast to minimise loss of life and mitigate suffering for post accident contingency based on the experiences of this tragedy; a) in pitch darkness there is no substitute lighting arrangments on each of the compartments to take care of such exigencies: Darkness hampered quick reliefs b) there is no quick communication facility available in the event the driver, assistant driver, or the guard is temporarily or partially incapacitated; c) there are no paramedics available either on board or on call at short notice at the respective stations; even the provision of first aid, blood bank, to take care of those seriously wounded; or gas welders and cylinders to extricate the passengers from the mangled bogies suffers due delays d) there is no effective co-ordination with State transport undertakings to deploy a fleet of buses within twenty four hours (the victims were forced to travel long distance to catch transport to the nearest village or town, others were charged exhorbitantly) e) that time and rescue operations are the essence in saving lives; and not the presence of VVIPs in the first 24 hours needs to be taken note of. The Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd authorities may do some serious thinking on these lines before putting into operation the Fast Train at speeds 160 to 180 kms. The sesmic prone belt where tremors to small occur causing unnoticed but silent rock rolling movements. One may argue that such mishaps are one too many world over yet every human life is precious atleast to those who lose their near and dear ones under tragic or neglected or callous circumstances. There is yet another reason that Konkan Railway Corporation officials need to make this railway a people friendly from the present hostile environs. Not all the land losers have been able to get gainful employment in the Sindhudurg or Ratnagiri Districts. This rich in natural resources region has a populace of economically poor people. The land losers who are still struggling for compensation or employment for their kin may have been driven to penury. The Konkan Railway passes through rich alluvial lands and hitherto grazing pastures. There are instances where a poor farmer has seen his cattle killed on the tracks. There is no compensation in such cases. But a livelihood has been lost worth Rs.5000/- and alternate employment in th organised sector is hard to come. There are no fencings provided in several patches where cattle graze. Even the numerous unmanned level crossings have claimed lives and animals. Numerous visits to the offices of the respective Talathis to ascertain the status of their compensation claims have made them hostile towards the Konkan Railway. There is a need for a human touch in these matters. Water tight bureaucratic procedures will only destroy the confidence of the aggrieved person. This is what the Konkan Railway needs to address simultaneously as the destructive power of a helpless induvidual could unwittingly contribute to such tragic situations. Just two month ago a tragedy was averted at Mayem in Goa for which a south goa based ngo commended the meritorious personnel. Better caution needs to be excercised by the traffic section of KRCL godfrey j. i. gonsalves, borda margao goa ________________________________________________________________________ Send free SMS using the Yahoo! Messenger. Go to http://in.mobile.yahoo.com/new/pc/ ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
