NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways saw the highest number of both passenger and freight trains undergoing cancellations countrywide due to law and order this year, making 2020-21 a particularly troublesome year on the operations front.
In total, 25,729 trains were cancelled, including 16,202 in the year 2020, due to law and order reasons in the last four years from 2018-19 to 2021-22 (up to November 31, 2021).
Sharing this, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw responded to the MPs in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, saying that after 2020-21, the second-highest number of 9,046 trains were cancelled in the last 11 months of the current 2021-22 financial year due to the reason of law and order in the country.
Before that, official data shows 478 trains were cancelled due to similar reasons in 2019-20.
It was only during 2018-19 that only three trains were cancelled due to law and order.
After law and order, bad weather was the second most disturbing and unforeseen reason that also wreaked havoc on the train operations front leading to the cancellation of 14,582 trains in the last four years, from 2018-19 to November 31 in 2021-22.
The minister further stated that the highest number of 5,312 trains getting cancelled in 2019-2020 was due to bad weather.
As per the official break-up of the railway ministry, 3423 trains were cancelled during 2018-19, 5312 in 2019 20, 1665 during 2020-21 and 4182 trains in the last 11 months of current 2021-22 due to bad weather. Official sources added that floods were one of the most unforeseen reasons that caused the cancellation of trains in the last four years.
Apart from bad weather and law and order, the railways had to cancel 1,616 trains in the last four years including the highest number of 1098 trains in 2020-2021, due to agitations in different parts of the country and railway track blockades.
262 trains were cancelled till November 31, 2021, due to agitations causing great inconvenience to the passengers.
Besides all this, the railway also lost the running schedules of the diesel and the electric locos of 16,819 trains developed the technical snags during the last four years from 2018-19 to November 31 of 2021-22.
As per official figures, the technical snags were developed in 1250 electric locos in the last 11 months of the current financial year alone.
As per data made available, the technical snags were developed in 9,101 diesel and 7,718 electric locos that caused the loss of trains schedules from 2018-19 to November 31 in 2021-22.