Railway minister SURESH PRABHU likely to quit, NITIN GADKARI may be throned.

Two major railway accidents within five days (about 100 people were injured in the Kaifiyat Express accident on Wednesday).

Railway Board chairman AK Mittal resigned on Wednesday & Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to out in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle. After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prabhu tweeted, “I met the Hon’ble Prime Minister @narendramodi taking full moral responsibility. Hon’ble PM has asked me to wait.”

Under Prabhu, safety expenditure is up to Rs 54,000 crore per year compared with Rs 34,000 crore per year during UPA-2 —  Rs 1 lakh crore safety fund, to be mainly funded from the general budget, has just been created for the next five years. Despite this, as a report of the Lok Sabha committee on track upgradation and modernisation points out, while the railways need to upgrade 4,000-5,000 km of track every year but less than 2,500 km was upgraded in FY17. Extreme congestion on tracks has been cited by the railways in reply to the committee as a factor that makes such upgrading difficult. Apart from more funds at his disposal, Prabhu’s successor — should he be dropped — will have it easier once the two dedicated freight corridors start functioning — half will be functional by December 2018, the full length by March 2020 — since this will reduce congestion on existing tracks and allow more time for planned maintenance.

One possibility, is that PM may go for an omnibus transport ministry with Nitin Gadkari taking it. In statement that can be seen as confirming Prabhu’s exit, finance minister Arun Jaitley said accountability was a good system, that the decision on Prabhu’s offer to quit will be taken by the prime minister. Though railway accidents and fatalities had come down dramatically during Prabhu’s tenure, what may do him in the casual attitude that led the Kalinga-Utkal Express accident on Saturday in Uttar Pradesh. After the accident, as FE reported, recordings surfaced of purported conversations between the assistant station manager and the controller who authorises train movements in the area.

The former heard telling the latter that the track inspectors want the railway lines to be shut for 15-20 minutes so that they can carry out repairs on the track, but the controller says this cannot be done because they are too many trains lined up to cross that stretch. While poor maintenance of tracks is the thing, the recordings — which the railways have neither confirmed nor denied — shows blatant disregard for safety. Suspending senior officials and even asking the Railway Board’s member, engineering, to go on leave was supposed to signal tough action. Clearly, this was not enough and, on Wednesday, the Railway Board chairman also put in his papers.