Railway Min claims not a single passenger killed in FY 19-20, calls it 'a safety record'

Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal on Saturday claimed that not a single passenger was killed in a railway accident in the first 9 months of a financial year i.e from April to December 2019. According to him, this has happened for the first time in 166 years. Taking to Twitter, he said, "Railway breaks another safety record." He also added that Railways is working "tirelessly to maintain and better this safety milestone". The Railway Minister also shared a video along with the tweet which shows the efforts taken by the Railways to ensure passenger safety.

Various measures taken by Railways to improve safety

On December 6, the Delhi High Court 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. In November, 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.

Indian Railways has also announced a massive push for eradicating crime and lawlessness in and around Railway Stations and Trains. In a big measure to curb crime, Indian Railways will install CCTVs across all trains, railway stations across India. Besides, Artificial Intelligence and Face Recognition tech will be used to identify lawbreakers.

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Railways announce a hike in ticket price

Indian Railways on Tuesday announced a hike in ticket price across its network from 01 January 2020. The increased fare will not be applicable in the suburban train services of the national transporter. The fare hike will be implemented in various categories of the services provided by Indian Railways. The Railway Ministry issued an order in which it said that while suburban fares remain unchanged, ordinary non-AC, non-suburban fares hiked by 1 paise per km of journey.

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