Title - ECoR budget cut ‘derails’ safety

The Railways’ reassessment of the budget of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) may just have compromised the safety of trains and passengers of the zone since it is likely to hit modernisation and improvements of these segments the most.The Anil Kakodkar Safety Committee had suggested an investment of ` 20,000 crore on signaling and upgrading work to improve safety but this is where the Railways seems to have compromised when it comes to Odisha. Budget for bridge works, signaling heads and telecom and other electrical works have seen major cuts. For ECoR, total amount for open line work has been reduced by more than Rs 90 crore __ from Rs 382.83 crore to Rs 292.07 crore.But it is track renewal which has seen the biggest cut though experts opine that this head should not have been negotiated at any cost otherwise it may lead to accidents. From Rs 201 crore, allotted in the budget, the reassessment has seen it dropping to Rs 177 crore. Similarly, the bridge work head has seen a slash by more than Rs  9 crore __ from Rs 25.81 crore to Rs 16.48 crore.Another major disappointment has been signaling and telecom head. From about Rs 96.36 crore, the budget has been reassessed to Rs 56 crore marking a Rs 40-crore drop. “These areas must not be touched because they need more attention than ever. In fact, Railway Minister Mukul Roy seemed to have overlooked the report on safety commissioned by his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi. After rolling back the fare hike, his ministry has compromised the safety aspects,” said an insider.

 As a result of the reassessment, which was strongly opposed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, some of the main priority works such as Talcher yard track circuiting, track renewal between Titilagarh and Theruvali and between Kapilas Road and Dhanmandal are allowed to suffer.

 Interestingly, ECoR gives the best operating ratio among the zones and has been subjected to such harsh cuts despite being a top performer. The operating ratio of ECoR stands at 45.6 per cent which is the only zone to have achieved the below 50 per cent mark. In Roy’s home state, Eastern Railways’ operating ratio stands at 181 per cent.

 ECoR has given Rs 8,103 crore from goods earnings alone which is much more than the addition of goods earnings and passenger earnings of Eastern Railway standing at Rs 3,894.8 crore, also the highest among 17 zones.