Quora user asked about Rail safety and you won’t believe who answered

Here’s how the Government is working towards the welfare and security of every commuter.

A Quora user asked a question on safety of Railways and you won't believe who answered. It was the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal himself.

Rated as one of the top ministers in the Narendra Modi government Goyal gave the Quora user a pleasant surprise. The user posted, "What is the government doing to improve the safety of Indian Railways?"

To this Goyal took to quora and replied. The Minister also laced his answer with infographics and data.

Read the quora thread here:

He said, "safety of all passengers in Indian Railways is an issue of the utmost importance for Government. Therefore, we have made safety the number one priority. During the first few weeks in office there has been a comprehensive review of safety undertaken to understand the short comings of the Indian railways. The outcome of the review brought forth a number of immediate measures that must be taken to address key issues such as Unmanned Level Crossing and Derailments."

Here's how the Government is working towards the welfare and security of every commuter:

TRACK SAFETY

Track safety is the number one priority for The Railways. Some of the issues related to unmanned level crossings have been addressed for a safer commute are -

• 34% of all accidents in 2016-17 were a result of unmanned level crossings
• Using transformative mantra of "Speed, Skill and Scale" the target to eliminate these been expedited from the earlier one of 2019
• Overriding priority for granting maintenance blocks. Blocks in September are up by 13% compared to last year
• Track replacement/renewal to be accorded the highest priority
• The Ministry will procure seven lakh tonne of rail, from open market to meet the shortfall of rail for new lines, gauge conversion and doubling

Another major safety issue hampering the growth of the Indian railways is derailments, due to defects in tracks along with other issues.

• Derailments are attributed to a number of factors including engineering mistakes, carriage/wagon defects and staff error
• It has therefore been the ministry's priority to focus on track replacement/renewal
• The construction of new tracks should be diverted to places/stretches which are prone to accidents and where replacement is due

Another priority for the Ministry is the procurement of new rails on a large scale with a target to complete all new lines on time. This is vital to improving safety as older tracks must be phased out to prevent derailments and improve efficiency.

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