Indian Railways registers zero passenger deaths in train accident in last one year since it started in 1853

Several measures were taken for safety improvement like the elimination of manned level crossings, construction of Road over Bridges (ROBs)/ Road under Bridges (RUBs), rehabilitation of bridges, etc.

Photo (Twiter/@RailMinIndia)

New Delhi: The Indian Railways has registered the best ever safety record during the April 2019 – March 2020 period including this year so far from April 1 to June 8 of having no railway passenger’s fatality in any train accident. 

The remarkable feat has been achieved for the first time since the introduction of the Railway System in India 166 years ago in the year 1853. 

Safety that has always been the topmost priority of the Indian Railways has lead to achieve this feat in the last 15 months.

Several measures were taken for safety improvement like the elimination of manned level crossings, construction of Road over Bridges (ROBs)/ Road under Bridges (RUBs), rehabilitation of bridges, highest ever renewal of rail tracks, highest ever supply of rails during the year from SAIL, effective track maintenance, stringent monitoring of safety aspects, improved training of railway staff, improvements in signaling system, use of modern technology for safety works, switching over to modern and safer LHB coaches in phases from the conventional ICF coaches etc.

Following are some major measures taken by the Indian Railways to enhance safety:

-  A record number (1,274) of Manned Level Crossings have been eliminated in 2019-20 compared to 631 in 2018-19 (double of that done in last year). This is the highest ever elimination of level crossings.

- 1,309 ROBs/RUBs were constructed in 2019-20 to enhance safety on the railways' network.

- 1,367 bridges were rehabilitated during 2019-20 compared to 1013 (+37% of last year).

- Highest ever renewal of rails for 5,181 Track Km (TKM) in 2019-20 against 4,265 TKM in 2018-19 (+20% of last year).

- Highest ever supply of rails (13.8 lakh ton) during the year from SAIL. With a supply of 6.4 Lakh ton long rails, the scope of field welding decreased drastically leading to better reliability of assets.

- 285 Level Crossings (LC) have been interlocked by signals in 2019-20, cumulative interlocked LC nos. are 11,639.

- In order to improve safety 84 stations with mechanical signaling replaced with electrical/electronic signaling during 2019-20.

These measures were taken with inputs in the system in the form of Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) introduced in the year 2017-18 with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to be spent in next five years, having annual outlay of Rs 20,000 crore.