Train accidents caused no passenger deaths in last two years: Indian Railway

PATNA: The Indian Railways has received zero reports of passenger fatalities across all zones, including the Hajipur-headquartered East Central Railway (ECR) due to train accidents during the years 2019-20 and
2020-21.

Quoting official information earlier shared in Rajya Sabha by the Minister of Railways, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi said that no passenger fatality was reported in the last two years because of enhanced safety measures throughout the country.

“As many 313 consequential train accidents had occurred from 2016-17 to 2020-21 and 239 passenger fatalities were reported. No passenger deaths occured during 2019-20 and 2020-21”, Modi said, quoting official information.

He said that the number of consequential train accidents has decreased from 104 in 2016-17, 73 in 2017-18, 59 in 2018-19, 55 in 2019-20 to only 22 only 2020-21. "A corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore for five years has been introduced by the Indian Railway, called Rashtriye Rail Sanraksha Kosh (National Railway Safety Fund) from 2017-18 for replacement, renewal and upgradation of safety assets and materials. Apart from this, Interlocking systems have been installed at 6,218 railway stations as on June 30, 2021 to prevent accidents due to human errors," he said.

He added sharing details from official information that all-electric locomotives were equipped with the Vigilance Control Devices to ensure alertness of loco pilots with enhanced track patrolling across the country.

“The latest technology called Ultrasonic Flaw Detection testing of rails is carried out to detect flaws and their timely removal by the railways, which has helped in containing the passenger fatalities also during accidents”, he said.

The rapid replacement of conventional rail coaches by LHB coaches had reduced the fatalities also. He said that the IR has claimed to have eliminated all unmanned level crossings on broad gauge in 2019.