Indian Railways records best ever safety performance in 2019-20, zero passenger fatalities

Ministry of Railway declared with a sense of pride that for the first time in its 166 year history, Indian Railways recorded its best-ever safety performance last year. The time period between April 2019 and March 2020 recorded zero passenger facilities from railway accidents. The authorities stated that improved infrastructure and a greater emphasis on passenger safety have helped to achieve the goal.

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Railways claim safety record

The official press release underlined some safety measures adopted by the Indian Railways: effective track maintenance, stringent monitoring of safety aspects, improved training of railway staff, improvements in signaling system, use of modern technology for safety works, elimination of manned level crossings, construction of Road over Bridges (ROBs)/ Road under Bridges (RUBs), etc.

Some specific changes that have been made include the elimination of manned level crossings in 2019-20 compared to 631 in 2018-19 (double of that done in last year), 1367 numbers of bridges rehabilitated, 285 numbers of level crossings (LC) have been interlocked by signals, etc.

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Shramik trains

Meanwhile, the Indian Railways has informed the state governments that it shall continue to provide Shramik Special train within 24 hours after the demand is received from the states. The Ministry of Railways has requested state governments to indicate their requirements about Shramik Special trains and see that projected demand for movement of residual persons by rail mode is well chalked out and determined.

"Indian Railways is committed to continue providing comfortable and safe movement of migrants through Shramik Special Trains as required by states," the Ministry said in a statement.

The Railways claimed that so far, the state-run transporter has run more than 4347 Shramik Special trains to ferry approximately 60 lakh persons to their destination states. The service was started on May 1, after weeks of nationwide media coverage of the dire conditions of out-of-job migrant workers walking back to their native towns as the coronavirus-induced lockdown battered livelihoods in cities.

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