Highlights: The safety and condition of India's railway network is at the centre of international attention following one of the deadliest accidents in the last 20 years. The collision between three trains, including one of freight, due to a problem with the electronic switching system, resulted in the death of at least 275 people. For Jean-Joseph Boillot, a specialist in India and major emerging countries, this new tragedy comes after years of significant efforts by Indian railways. The Indian Railways is probably the largest railway organization in the world, even ahead of China.

The safety and condition of India's railway network is at the centre of international attention following one of the deadliest accidents in the last 20 years. The collision between three...

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India: "The railway system gives the impression of being dilapidated but it is extremely well organized"

The safety and condition of India's railway network is at the centre of international attention following one of the deadliest accidents in the last 20 years. The collision between three trains, including one of freight, due to a problem with the electronic switching system, resulted in the death of at least 275 people, while 1,200 others were injured. Lack of investment in infrastructure, dilapidated, outdated and saturated? For Jean-Joseph Boillot, a specialist in India and major emerging countries, associate researcher at IRIS, this new tragedy comes after years of significant efforts by Indian railways.

New Delhi NDLS railway station. Ashik Gowdar

Text by: Jelena Tomic Follow

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RFI: We often talk about obsolescence, overloading trains in India. What assessment would you make, following this disaster, of the Indian railway network?

Jean-Joseph Boillot: I think we often take advantage of an accident - really unfortunate for the victims - to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The Indian Railways is probably the largest railway organization in the world, even ahead of China. China has more tracks, but carries almost the same number of passengers as India, which is a much smaller country than China. We have about 70,000 kilometers of track that serve 8 billion passengers [per year, editor's note].

And so the choice that was made after independence - and because we all remember Mahatma Gandhi who campaigned by train and third class - is to strengthen, modernize the railway system and finally continue to do so on an extremely regular basis.

So that today, we have a railway system a little strange for many Westerners. At the same time, it gives the impression of being dilapidated, with old wagons, etc. And on the other hand, what we do not see is that we are dealing with an extremely organized rail system. It is the largest employer in the country, there are 1.5 million employees, and in fact, more than 15 million people depend on it.

They were among the first to computerize the train reservation system, including small Nokia phones with which you can easily reserve your seats, so as to relieve crowds at stations.

>> READ ALSO: India: a human error would have caused the rail disaster

Is system bottleneck a problem?

And as far as trafficking is concerned, the equation is known: on the one hand, India is the first country in the world by population, and on the other, we have a relatively small territory, which does not move, which is always the same area and on which it is necessary to pass five times more traffic than at the time of independence. You thus have a very skilful management of a pressure system that benefits from considerable financial resources. We often hear that India does not invest in its railways, in fact the investment plan that has been selected for 2030 is $ 715 billion that is invested in rail infrastructure, both for passengers and freight trains.

But one of India's problems is that it has chosen to maintain rail transport for heavy, heavy goods. And so there is a kind of telescoping that occurs between the sharply increasing passenger traffic and the freight traffic. And the unfortunate accident on 2 June is precisely related to the fact that you have a freight train - we are in the eastern region of India, where there are all the coal mines, iron mines, etc. - which was at a standstill, and it was probably not detected that it was stopped quickly enough by the computer system.

So there are investments, but there is also a whole set of strong constraints. And Indian railways are chasing this pressure, this tension. We can consider that double-decker or even three-decker trains - we are thinking about this in India - would probably be the solution.

A signage error appears to be the cause of the June 2 accident in eastern India. Is there a need for track upgrades?

The tracks are being continuously upgraded. Every time you travel by train in India, you see work on the tracks. The problem is that India is a democratic country - everyone admires China from a railway point of view, but hates it politically, you have to find a good balance. The problem with widening roads is that they encroach on private land, including agricultural areas. And so you have very great difficulties, when it is decided, to implement [the project, editor's note]. There are procedures that span ten, fifteen, even twenty years. There is no expeditious procedure for carrying out this enlargement work.

There comes a time when, by dint of widening - see the major North-South, East-West rail networks - there is rigidity, a brake on increasing the number of tracks on the same line.

India: "The railway system gives the impression of being dilapidated but it is extremely well organized"

India: "The railway system gives the impression of being dilapidated but it is extremely well organized"

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