Yes,
Public Safety in India, including transportation safety, especially road & rail safety is a huge issue.
There is lack of political will and the Railways Ministry has its own budget set in addition to the budget by the Finance ministry.
It is also complicated by India having-
a coalition government since 1989--and coalitions formed by very opposing idealogies therefore
difficult to get funding unless there is private financing-irrespective whther from Inda or International. It is likely to be "political suicide" to increase passenger fares--a catch 22 situation. Even a moderate increase in fares was pushed back
http://timesofindia.indi...12318153.cms?referral=PMa federal structure where land aquisition, law and order are state subjects etc
Trade Unions are not constructive
There was a Report by a "High Level Safety Review Committee" for the Indian Railways Board in February 2012
http://www.indianrailway...-BOOK-HLSRC%20latest.pdfSome highlights from the report:-
The financial state of Indian Railways is at the brink of collapse ........... Passenger fares have not been increased in the last decade during which many passenger carrying trains were introduced on the existing overloaded infrastructure. This has strained the infrastructure way beyond its limit and all the safety margins have been eaten up pushing Indian Railways to a regime of adhocism in infrastructure maintenance.
There is no practice of independent safety regulation by an independent agency separate from operations.
Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) which is the present apex technical wing of Indian Railways is highly constrained due to several reasons. This has hampered the ability of the system to internalize new emerging technologies and indigenous development has not progressed consistent with today’s needs.
to adopt an advanced signaling system based on continuous track circuiting and cab signaling similar to European train control system Level-II on the entire trunk routes of about 19000 route kilometers at an estimated cost of INR 200 000 000 000 within 5 years. ( 1 Pound Stg =100 INR)
total elimination of all level crossings (manned and unmanned) within 5 years at an estimated cost of INR 500 000 000 000 crores which will get recovered over 7-8 years due to saving in operation and maintenance costs and mproved train operation.
to stop production of Oil Intergal Coah Factory (ICF) design coaches and completely switch over to manufacture of Linke-Hoffmann-Busch (Modern Indian Railway Coach-LHB) design coaches immediately. LHB is now part of Alstom LHB GmbH