CR says 53 pc drop in accidents under its zone in FY17
Mumbai, Dec 14 (PTI) A slew of preventive and remedialmeasures taken by authorities has led to a "significant" dropin the number of accidents under the Central Railway zone, anofficial said today.
"Owing to continuous efforts, there has been asignificant drop in consequential accidents on the CentralRailway. This is reflected in the figures of such accidentsover the last few years," a CR press release said here.
In 2015-16, there were 52 rail-related incidents underthe zone, which covers Maharashtra, parts of Madhya Pradeshand Karnataka. In the subsequent fiscal year (2016-17), thisfigure reduced considerably by 53 per cent to 24, it said.
"In the current fiscal (from April to November), therehas been only 11 such incidents, which is even moreheartening," the release said.
The maximum reduction in mishaps has been seen in theareas which were earlier considered chronic, such as yardderailments and signal passing at danger (which occurs whenan engine crew overshoot the signal), it said.
Sunil Udasi, chief PRO of CR, said the reduction inthe rail-related incidents has been possible due to concertedefforts of the Central Railway.
"We have eliminated unmanned level crossing gates frombroad gauge network and the staff operating in yards such aspointsmen, guards and loco pilots have been trained andcounselled at large scale (on safety measures).
"Therefore, there has not been a single level crossingaccident during the last two-and-a-half years," he said.
CR has procured safety spares for track maintenance ona war footing and the purchase of such items this year isnearly four times higher than the previous year, Udasi said.
"This year CR purchased safety spares worth Rs 160crore as against about Rs 40 crore in previous few years.""Our teams do extensive night inspection of tracks.
Besides, we have procured high-tech breath analysers for crewlobbies to detect and prevent cases of alcoholism," he said.
Under an initiative, the Central Railway has trainedits staff in disaster management to improve its reaction timein case of an accident, Udasi said.
`Consequential train accidents' include mishaps withserious repercussion in terms of loss of life or injury,damage to railway property or interruption to traffic. Theseinclude collisions, derailments, fire or explosion in trains.
PTI APMRSY.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.