NEW DELHI: With railways launching zero accident mission, railway board has pulled up zonal railways for huge delays in execution of safety related works as some have not able to even place indents, there has been repeated discharge of tenders and surrender of funds.
The matter came up for discussion during Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) conference and it was found that there are delays in execution of safety related work.
“A lot of delay is noticed in the execution of RSP (rolling stock programme) works including those that are related to safety. Often, public unit’s/railways are not able to even place indents or there is repeated discharge of tenders and surrender of funds,” said a railway ministry official.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in budget proposed setting up of a special safety fund of Rs 1 lakh crore for carrying upgradation of tracks, signalling and elimination of unmanned level crossings. But spending of funds remain a cause of concern.
The 17 zonal railways have been directed to speed up CCTV based surveillance system, fire and smoke detection system for AC coaches and proper systems of maintenance for these equipments need to be put in place.
Rise in derailments has become a cause of concern for railways as Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had announced ‘Zero Accident Mission’ in 2016 whereby public transporter will take measures to bring down accidents.
There have been back to back accidents in last months and measures are being taken to upgrade infrastructure and avoid human error.
On November 20, 2016, Indore-Patna Express derailed near Pukhrayan leading to death of 149 passengers. Two passengers were killed when Sealdah-Ajmer Express derailed near Kanpur on December 28, 2016.
Early this year, Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express derailed in Vizianagram district, Andhra Pradesh, killing 39 passengers. On March 3, 2017, a blast happened in Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train. Eight coaches of the Jabalpur-Nizamuddin Mahakaushal Express derailed in UP on March 30. On April 15, eight coaches of Lucknow-bound Rajya Rani Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh.