Railway Accidents: Union Minister Ashwini on Wednesday attended the ‘Swacchata Abhiyan’ at Garden Reach, in Kolkata. Speaking to reportes about the railway accidents in the country, Vaishnaw said that systematic and structural issues are being resolved.
“We are trying to find the root cause of any accident and are trying to resolve structural and systematic issues. If we look at the situation 10 years ago, there were 171 accidents per year, and now it has come down to just 40 per year, and is also reducing significantly every year,” Vaishnaw said.
He said, “Accidents have reduced by more than 60 to 70 per cent. During the UPA government, the average number of derailment incidents used to be around 400 to 500 which has now come down to 80. As we keep on improving the training practices of our employees and work on technology, things are improving and we are extremely happy about it.”
Further, he added that the development of Kavach has improved. “The development of Kavach which was a significant milestone for us has now been completed. The Kavach 4.0 system has been successfully installed between Kota and Sawai Madhopur,” he said.
“Kavach has been installed on 2000 kilometres and on 900 locomotives and now it will be done around the country. We have received the highest level of safety certification from globally recognized safety accessors,” he added.
Additionally, Vaishnaw also extended his wishes to the people on Shubho Mahalya and confirmed that for the development of West Bengal railways, a bridge would be inaugurated.
“I extend my heartfelt wishes to the people on the occasion of Shubho Mahalya. The work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for the development of West Bengal railways will be inaugurated today. A bridge will be inaugurated today and the capacity of Sealdah sub-urban services will be increased from nine coaches to 12 coaches which will also be inaugurated today,” Vaishnaw said.