Ill-prepared to work under heavy fog: Rlys

New Delhi: After a series of accidents and train delays and cancellations, the Indian Railways has admitted that the department, which runs one of the world’s largest rail networks, is ill-prepared to handle the continuous foggy weather.
    Stating that railways in the northern areas never faced such a long spell of fog, Vivek Sahai, member (traffic), Railway Board, said, “The situation is going to continue till the weather improves. We need at least 48 hours of good weather to improve the services.” Ever since fog enveloped the northern areas, three accidents were reported—all within a fortnight—where trains rammed into stationary trains, killing at least 15 people and injuring over 60 people.
    Though Sahai maintained that the accident rate this year is much better than last year’s, he agreed that loco drivers are under a lot of pressure as they can’t handle a long spell of fog. Ruling out the possibility of the failure of the automatic signalling system, he said they occurred due to human error as drivers failed to stick to the speed limit prescribed for foggy conditions.
    An official said the launch of automatic signalling paved the way for running many trains on the Delhi-Howrah route. “This has increased the risk of collision as the gap between trains on the same track is very little,” he said, adding that this has also increased the pressure on loco drivers.