Indian Railways had zero passenger deaths this fiscal, first in 166 years: Piyush Goyal

The Indian Railways has said that zero passenger deaths was witnessed in the current financial year, that is, 2019-20, which is for the first time in the 166-year-long history of Railways. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted, "Safety First: First time in 166 years, Indian Railways had zero passenger deaths in the current financial year."

Various measures taken by Railways to improve safety

On December 6, the Delhi High Court has sought a response from the Centre on a petition seeking to maintain the highest standards of safety and security measures at all railways stations across the country. Last month, the Railway Ministry claimed that in order to improve safety, modern track structure consisting of Pre-stressed Concrete Sleeper (PSC), 60kg, 90 or higher Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) rails, fan-shaped layout turnout on PSC sleepers, steel channel sleepers on girder bridges is used while carrying out primary track renewals.

It also said that ultrasonic flaw detection (USFD) testing of rails to detect flaws and timely removal of defective rails are carried out to avoid incidents of derailments and to improve the safety of the railway tracks. Apart from all this, drives and inspections at regular intervals are carried out to monitor and educate staff for the observance of safe practices, the ministry said.

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Transformational organizational restructuring of Railways

The PM Modi-led Cabinet approved the transformational organizational restructuring of the Indian Railways, announced Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in a press release on Tuesday. According to the reforms introduced, the Railway Board will now have some independent members and the Chairman Railway Board (CRB) will head the re-organization of Railway Board on functional lines. According to the Press Information Bureau, Government of India, the reforms include:

• Unification of the existing eight Group A services of the Railways into a Central Service called Indian Railway Management Service (/RMS)
• Re-organization of Railway Board on functional lines headed by CRB with four Members and some Independent Members
• The existing service of Indian Railway Medical Service (IRMS) to be consequently renamed as Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS)

"This organization of the department runs deep down to the grass-root level of the Railways," the government says in a release. The release read that: "Railways has an ambitious program to modernize and provide the highest standards of safety, speed, and services to the passengers with a proposed investment of Rs. 50 lakh crore over the next 12 years.”

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(with ANI inputs)