Kakodkar Committee suggests..

Panel suggests independent rail safety authority

New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS) A high-level railway safety panel headed by former Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar Friday suggested setting up of an independent rail safety authority and said the commissioners of railway safety should be placed under it.

"It was a challenging task," Kakodkar told reporters.

According to the report submitted to the ministry Friday, "Poor infrastructure and resources, lack of empowerment at functional levels and a grim financial condition" are affecting the safety of the national transporter.

The panel estimated the railways would need around Rs.1 lakh crore in the next five years to overhaul its safety apparatus.

To deal with the problem, the panel has recommended a Railway Research and Development Council (RRDC) to be set up at the apex level.

Further, the panel has strongly recommended to adopt an advanced signaling system based on continuous track circuiting and cab signaling similar to European train control system Level-II on the entire trunk routes of about 19,000 route kilometers at an estimated cost of Rs.20,000 crores within 5 years.

Realising that 40 percent of all railway accidents happen at the unmanned level crossings, the panel has asked the ministry to eliminate all such crossings (manned and unmanned) through closure, merger, limited height subways at an estimated cost of Rs.50,000 crore over the next five years.

The panel has also suggested that all new coaches should only be of LHB design, which is safer for present speeds and train lengths. This should cost around Rs.10,000 crore over five years.

Further, the panel said maintenance of safety related infrastructure would cost the railways around Rs.20,000 crore.

The panel has also suggested empowerment of employees at functional levels and simplification and streamlining of processes and procedures.

Noting that implementation of accepted recommendations of the previous safety committees has been a major issue, the panel recommended an empowered group of officers in the Railway Board to pilot the implementation of its suggestions in a time bound manner with full funding.

The panel has also recommended review of implementation of recommendations by the

new statutory outfit of Railway Safety Authority.

The high level committee, which also included metro man E. Sreedharan, was formed in Sep 2011, after the Kalka Mail derailment near Fatehpur (Uttar Pradesh) July last year in which 71 people were killed and over 260 injured.