Unified Railway Safety Norms to Be Implemented Across India in 10 Days

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that a unified train operation safety norm for all railway zones will be issued within the next 10 days. This decision follows the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) highlighting contradictions in subsidiary rules (SR) across different zones during an investigation into the Kanchanjunga train accident.

Unified Safety Norms

Vaishnaw stated that the ministry began standardising SRs after the CRS report on the June 17 Kanchanjunga train accident. The accident involved a goods train colliding with the stationary Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express, resulting in 10 fatalities, including the loco pilot of the goods train.

The CRS report pointed out that discrepancies in SRs concerning speed restrictions during automatic signal failures caused confusion. "We constituted a committee after discussing the matter with the CRS and initiated the work of reviewing all the subsidiary rules of all 17 zones to bring uniformity to them," Vaishnaw said.

Addressing Discrepancies

According to railway officials, General Rules (GR) are formulated by the Railway Ministry, based on which zones create their own SRs to address local issues. However, SRs must not contradict GRs. In the Kanchanjunga accident case, variations in norms regarding train speed during automatic signalling system failures were identified.

The CRS probe highlighted these variations, prompting the Railway Board to take action. "The CRS had said that differences in subsidiary rules of various railway zones regarding speed restriction during automatic signal failure led to confusion," a railway official explained.

Vaishnaw confirmed that the process of reviewing and standardising SRs across all 17 zones has been completed. "We have completed the process and now in another 10 days, unified SR rules applicable to all zones will be issued," he added.

This move aims to eliminate confusion and enhance safety by ensuring consistent operational norms across all railway zones. The new unified SR rules will address issues identified by the CRS and improve overall train operation safety.

The Kanchanjunga accident underscored the need for uniformity in safety norms, leading to this significant step by the Railway Ministry. The upcoming unified SR rules are expected to prevent similar incidents in the future by providing clear guidelines for handling automatic signal failures.