Grave concern regarding derailment
The fate of Uttar Pradesh in the recent past has not been a particularly memorable one. With the Gorakhpur incident still fresh in everyone's memory, where over 60 children died due to an unfortunate circumstance of acute shortage of oxygen, tragedy hit the state once again when the Haridwar bound Utkal Express, which was travelling from Puri, Odisha, derailed at Khatauli, just in the outskirts of Muzaffarnagar, barely 100km away from the national capital. This is the second time in the last one year that a train derailment has given birth to significant worry in the heartland of India. This accident comes less than one year after the Indore-Patna Express derailed near Kanpur in November last year leaving over 100 people dead. The growing frequency of train derailments is a source of rising concern that must be investigated by state and Central authorities.
The Indian railway system is one of the largest travel networks in the world. The Indian Railways, on an everyday basis, transports over 8 billion passengers from one location to another, carrying not only palpable lives but also hard earned resources, livestock and livelihoods. It is the backbone of our growing economy which is still less centred on technology and remains largely reliant on the muscle of toiling labour. The railways have been an indispensable aspect of India's growth, with goods trains and passenger trains both facilitating the physical movement of India's spiralling economy. Over the last several decades, the railways have grown in popularity, with larger numbers of the population taking to the tracks as an easier mode of conveyance, often to transport even farm produce and livestock.