Railways has registered the best ever safety record during April, 2019 to March this year. Railways Ministry has said that there has been no fatality of any railway passenger in any train accident. This remarkable feat has been achieved for the first time in the year 2019-2020 since the introduction of the Railway System in the country 166 years ago.
The Ministry said, the zero passenger fatalities in the last 15 months is a result of continuous efforts by the Railways to improve safety on all fronts. Railway has undertaken several measures to improve the safety, including the elimination of manned level crossings, construction of Road over Bridges, highest ever renewal of rail tracks, effective track maintenance and improvements in the signaling system.
The various excellent activities carried out in the year 2019-20 are summarized below:-
- In 2019-20, Indian Railways eliminated 1274 Manned Level Crossings, compared to 631 Manned Level Crossings in the year 2018-19. Thus, this is the highest ever elimination of level crossings recorded by Indian Railways.
- A total of 1309 ROBs/RUBs were built in the year 2019-20 in order to enhance safety on the Indian Railways network. The ROB is road over bridge and RUB is Road under bridge. These are constructed to eliminate the existing level crossing gates.
- During 2019-20, 1367 number of bridges were rehabilitated, compared to 1013 bridges in 2018-19.
- In 2019-20, Indian Railways recorded the highest ever renewal of rails for 5,181 Track km (TKM), as against 4,265 TKM in the year 2018-19.
- During the year 2019-20, there has been the highest ever supply of rails (13.8 lakh ton) from Steel Authority of India Limited(SAIL).
- In 2019-20, a total of 285 number of Level Crossings have been interlocked by signals; cumulative interlocked Level Crossings are 11,639. interlocking provides signals at the gates, thus warning the loco pilot well ahead in case gate is open or there is any obstruction.
- During 2019-20, 84 railway stations with mechanical signaling have been replaced with electrical/electronic signaling to improve safety.
The above steps have considerably improved the safety of passenger movement in trains. Good works must be ensured in future in future too as there are many such activities to be carried out. As the country is facing an unprecedented situation of the pandemic, there could arise a deficit of funds which needs to be closely monitored.