Nitish gives railways' VRS the human touch

NEW DELHI: Talking tough in his first comeback press conference since he resigned in a huff, railway minister Nitish Kumar on Friday announced a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for 8,000 senior drivers and about 42,000 gangmen engaged in maintenance work for revamping safety in the wake of a spate of railway accidents.
“We will be providing a job to the wards of those who opt for this VRS,� Mr Kumar told reporters. Mr Kumar, who spoke in the presence of the railway union representatives, said engine drivers and gangmen who are in the age group of 51-57 years can avail of this offer. “Since the work of gangmen involves carrying heavy tools for maintenance, it is possible that they could get tired at this age. We have worked out a VRS scheme for them by offering a job to the ward of the person opting for VRS,� he said. “Similarly the drivers could experience problems in concentration on attaining a certain age and we decided to offer VRS to such drivers,� the minister said.
“We have been talking to the railway unions about this issue for the last one year,� Mr Kumar said, adding the union has expressed satisfaction over the offer. Mr Kumar hit out at critics who attributed all train disasters to human errors and said there were instances of sabotage too. He said the railway force was now entering into a new domain of guarding the tracks which had been hitherto solely under other agencies. He was also considering a maintenance break for the trains and the possibility of undertaking such a measure by reworking the railway timetable.
Mr Kumar said after the formation of the Rs 17,000-crore Special Railway Safety Fund, several measures have been taken to ensure the safety of rail passengers. “There had been 414 accidents during ‘01-02 as compared to 473 accidents during ‘00-01, a decline of 12.5%,� he pointed out. He said during ‘02-03 the number of consequential train accidents stood at about 351, as compared to 414 in ‘01-02, reflecting a further decline of about 15%. Railway officials said this figure was the lowest in 40 years. During April-June ‘03, the number of consequential train accidents stood at about 85 as compared to 103 during the corresponding period of ‘02-03, a decline of 17.4%, they added.
Mr Kumar said a high-level committee constituted to review the disaster management system has made more than 100 recommendations. These include improving the existing infrastructure and its usage for mitigation of disasters and for better preparedness in emergencies. The committee’s report has been accepted and the same are being implemented, the minister said.
Similarly, he said out of the 278 recommendations made by the Railway Safety Review Committee, 248 recommendations have been accepted and 52 have already been implemented. In reply to a query, the minister said the average age of a gangman was between 48 and 50 years. There are 15 lakh employees in the railways to take care of 14,000 trains running every day. In case of enhanced freight targets, Mr Kumar said there was no option but to increase the goods trains and it was necessary to provide the track availability for the increasing demand of freight and passenger trains.
Mr Kumar said in the direction of safety, all new passenger coaches will be provided with emergency exit doors on the floor and ceiling. He also said he would embark on a Safety Samvad Yatra after the monsoon session of Parliament to take stock of the safety measures in various parts of the country. “Based on the deliberations of the Railway Safety Workshop held here last week, a Corporate Safety Plan for Indian Railways is under finalisation and will be ready within a month’s time,� he said.
A number of other vital items which came up for discussion included sabotage and adverse extraneous factors affecting the railways, specially tampering with the tracks, he said. Mr Kumar said the Railway Board chairman will be writing to the chief secretaries of states for better co-ordination in safety matters.