Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that, as a consequence of various safety measures taken over the years, there has been a steep decline in the number of accidents. He informed that the government has been able to bring down the number of rail accidents by 90 per cent from 2014 to 2025.

 

 

Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour today, Mr Vaishnaw said, Kavach is an indigenous Automatic Train Protection system designed to prevent train accidents, and this complex system has five major systems within. He said, Indian Railways has completed seven thousand 129 kilometres of laying of Optical Fibre Cable, eight hundred 60 Telecom Towers have been installed, seven hundred 67 Stations have a Station Data Centre, and four thousand 154 Locomotives have the provision of Kavach.

 

 

The Ministry said, the Government goes to the root cause and tries to find out the structural or systemic problem behind accidents. He added that the entire Indian Railways team is working with sincerity to tackle safety-related issues.    

 

 

Replying to another supplementary, Mr Vaishnaw said the government has launched the Amrit Bharat scheme for the redevelopment of stations with a long-term approach, and the work is going on at a good pace. He said, Amrit Bharat scheme is the world’s largest railway station redevelopment program. The Minister said his Ministry is giving utmost importance to safety as redevelopment of stations is going on with flowing traffic.

 

 

Replying to another supplementary, the Minister said, practically a new city is coming up in Palghar, Maharashtra, due to the upcoming Vadhavan port, which will be one of the biggest ports of the world. He said the Vadhavan port is being connected with the Dedicated Freight Corridor. Mr Vaishnaw said the procurement process is underway for 238 new trains equipped with an automatic door closing system in Mumbai. He said this is being done while keeping safety in mind.