Railway Ministry plans new strategies for passengers' safety

For the last few years, many Railway ministers have lost their portfolio, or have resigned due to rising number of train accidents in the country.

In recent years India has seen several railway ministers. The first challenge that every minister faces is the safety of passengers in the country known for the longest train connection in the world.

For the last few years, many Railway ministers have lost their portfolio, or have resigned due to rising number of train accidents in the country. Former Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu, is not the exception. Now, this gigantic responsibility is taken over by Piyush Goyal.

The Minister has answred to question on steps taken to enure safety of passengers. He listed out steps taken so far in this direction.

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



Derailments

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.



LHB coaches

It is also decided that the manufacturing of conventional ICF design coaches should be stopped & new design LHB coaches only should be manufactured. ICF coaches have been in service for around 50 years now and are considered to be outdated.



Transforming through technology

The Government is investing in technology to make sure that the way people commute changes and become more comfortable and safer. Following are some steps we have taken -

• Ramping up electronic interlock of signals in place of manual interlocking
• Within few months, CCTV cameras will be installed in all suburban trains in Mumbai with monitoring mechanism. This shall be done in parallel across India as well.



Efficiency in railways

• We, at Ministry of Railways, believe that employee efficiency leads to comfortable and safer journey of the commuters. Keeping the same in mind we have made the following changes in the way our employees work.
• Five-member committee of senior officials of Railways to improve safety of staff and workers working on railway work-sites mainly tracks
• Report of Mumbai suburban audit covering each suburban station received. Key recommendations include Provision of new FOBs (Foot Over Bridges) and widening/replacement of existing FOBs, escalators, additional entry/exit points of landings etc. Zonal railways preparing action plans
• Fresh time table, which will have specific blocks of maintenance, to be prepared and launched soon. Efficiency gained from this initiative will improve the speed and safety.



Employee Empowerment

Empowerment of GMs, DRMs and field officials of Indian Railways will lead to fast track decision making, execution and overall working of Railways. Here are some steps we have taken towards steady and systematic transformation of Railways.

• Delegation of unlimited financial and administrational powers for safety to field unit GMs of zones for next 18 months
• Posts of Additional Divisional Railway Managers being increased in all the railway division offices for improving operational efficiency.
• 200 officers to be relocated from Head Quarters as in field to strengthen ground operations and project implementation.
• Tremendous stress on field inspections by officers
• Staff being used in residences of officers etc. has been reposted to departments including track safety. About 8,000 such staff has already rejoined their posts

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