In past five years, over ₹1.08 lakh crore spent on railway safety

The Indian Railways is taking a slew of measures to ensure safety in operations following the Balasore triple train tragedy which left 295 persons dead and over a thousand injured, Union Railway Minister told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

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The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) was introduced in 2017-18 for the replacement, renewal and the upgrade of critical safety assets, with a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore for five years. “From 2017-18 till 2021-22, a gross expenditure of ₹1.08 lakh crore was incurred on RRSK works,”.

The measures include enforcing adherence to protocol for alteration works involving changes in the existing system. Mr. Vaishnaw said that a concept of rolling block has been introduced. Maintenance, repair and replacement is planned two weeks in advance on a rolling basis and executed.

A special drive has been launched to ensure that there is double locking in relay room and goomties at level-crossing gates. Also, it is being ensured that there is data logging and generation of SMS alerts for opening and closing of doors of these relay rooms and goomties, Mr. Vaishnaw said. The system of disconnection and reconnection for signal and telecom equipment is being followed.