Railways to seek Rs1 trillion ‘special safety fund’ from finance ministry

Railways to seek Rs1 trillion ‘special safety fund’ from finance ministry

New Delhi: India’s railways ministry plans to ask the ministry of finance to sanction Rs.1 trillion as a “special safety fund” for track renewal and maintenance, upgrading bridges and removal of unmanned level crossings—partly a reaction to recent accidents and partly an effort to reinforce deficient safety infrastructure.

Railways minister Suresh Prabhu called a meeting of railways zonal general managers on Tuesday in the backdrop of recent accidents. The emergency meeting was called after Prabhu returned from his five-day visit of Japan and South Korea on Sunday. The meeting was also attended by minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha and other members of the Railway Board.

At a media interaction after the meeting, chairman of the Railway Board A.K. Mital admitted that 40% of railway accidents in the current fiscal year were avoidable. “These happened due to system, human, equipment or maintenance failure,” he said, adding that the number of accidents, however, has come down.

Since 1 April, there have been 54 railways accidents compared with 77 that took place in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. Around 40% of the accidents this year have happened due to derailment and another 40% at unmanned level crossings. “We intend to address these two areas through the fund,” said Mital. In the last five years, around 5,900 unmanned crossings have been converted into manned ones; there are around 10,000 more unmanned crossings across the country. The ministry is in talks with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and Indian Space Research Organisation to develop solutions to alert people of approaching trains at unmanned crossings.

A railways spokesperson who was present at the meeting said Prabhu told all officials to conduct safety audits and take action on the audit reports. “The minister said that there have been shortcomings in inspection which need to be addressed. He also said that safety is non-negotiable and laxity, unacceptable.”

The ministry has fired 97 people in the last one year, holding them responsible for railway accidents. “In some of the cases, it was found that response to take corrective actions was slow,” said Mital.

The railways, in a white paper published in February 2015, said it would work towards reducing the number of accidents to zero. However, there have been various train accidents in the recent past, including derailment of a chartered train between the Kalka and Shimla rail tracks, in which two UK citizens lost their lives and the derailment of Secunderabad-Mumbai Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Duronto Express at Martur between Shahbad and Gulbarga in Karnataka during the intervening night between 12 September and 13 September.

During his visit to Japan, Prabhu discussed the participation of Japanese railways and Japanese companies in various areas of Indian railways with the aim of modernization and technology upgradation. He also discussed their role in helping Indian railways succeed in its zero-accident mission.

Source :Livemint.