Sometimes The Image Perception Doesn’t Portray Real On Ground Scenario: Chairman, Indian Railways
The recent Mumbai Elphinstone stampede and the billion dollar investment in the bullet train stirred a very important question. Instead of aiming for the moon should we first fix what we have?
Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Indian Railways says at the World Economic Forum, that the overall development of Indian Railways cannot come to a halt to fix the existing system. Assuring that the government is aiming to do better every day, Lohani presses on ‘Safety as the utmost priority’.
“Both consolidation and growth have to go hand in hand. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the fact that we have a lot of catching up to do. Right now our average speed of passenger trains is 45-50. We have to look much beyond that. We are also looking at the latest high-speed trains, new freight corridors, corridors for mid high-speed segments to step up towards further development. Everything has to go hand in hand,” says the Chairman.
He further adds that the existing system is solid and it is not that it has gone absolutely haywire.
“We have 22,000 trains running every day, 100 million tonnes of freight and about 2.5 crore passengers. Having said that, we can do much better.”
He mentions that the recent accident created a different image perception altogether.
“The reality remains that the total numbers of accidents have come down. Sometimes the image perception doesn’t portray the real on ground scenario”, said Lohani.
However, despite the solid system, the quality is still not up to the standards and safety is a big concern. Is it lack of funds?
“Safety is our focus number one and we cannot cut the corner on safety at all. Safety, passenger comfort, punctuality are the symptoms of the disease that is somewhere else. We are going to change our processes relating to decision making, contracting and all that would reflect into better safety and system,” says Lohani.
