The Tracks of Doom!
The Indian Railways are considered to be one of the largest and most intricate railway networks in the whole world. With a total length of about 60,000 km of tracks spread out in almost every possible corner of the country, it also has the unwanted tag of 'the most unsafe and deadliest tracks in the world'. As you can see in the picture, people are sitting aboard the coaches, hanging out if it, and even sitting on the engine blocking the view of the engine driver. This picture indirectly tells us about the incapability of the railway ministry in particular, and the the Indian government as a whole, which I believe, is not true. The reason for my previous statement is that, when I was picking up this picture from Google, I read the caption put on by BBC - "Does India really need Bullet Trains?" which took me by great surprise.
The reason for this blog was actually that, after seeing a show on the National Geographic channel - 'World's Most Extreme'. Do try to watch this show on Nat Geo, and a few more, they will surely interest you. I was watching this episode on the world's most extreme railways, and the Indian Railways were mentioned as the top deadliest one. But the reason that got me pumped up for writing this blog was that, when I was searching more facts about the topic, the captions by BBC were just popping up and almost dissing every attempt of the government for development in the field of railways. OK, I hands down agree to the fact that the Bullet Train from Mumbai to Sabarmati... it's not that important as it would have been if it would have been connecting some two metro cities like Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Chennai or even Delhi-Chennai. But still it is at least an attempt to bring some radical changes in the country.
8 people die on the railway tracks every day, only in Mumbai! About 50,000 people lost their lives in the last three years in train related accidents. But when we see that how the people die, it is observed that about 85% die because of their own foolishness. Most of them died either by falling down from the roofs of the coaches, or by falling down because of the loss of grip on the handles which they hold on to, while some died while they were crossing the railway lines, NOT by the prescribed foot-over bridges or subways but over the railway tracks and thus, getting crushed underneath!
For the conclusion, the Indian Railways are not that deadly, but the people using it are too adventurous. Using the roofs so that one reaches early and save some money, I'll need some time to understand their psychology... And compensating for such a large population, it may create some more sub-problems, and will thus require critical and visionary thinking and will need to be handled delicately.
Do share your ideas in the comments section below!