Rail accidents have witnessed a steep decline in the last ten years in the country. The number of train accidents including derailment has also reduced from 135 in 2014-15 to 40 in 2023-24. This was stated by Railways Minister Ashwin Vaishnaw in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
The Minister said, this year 29 train accidents have been reported from April to November. He informed me that these accidents have occurred due to equipment failure, errors in train working, environmental factors and human error. He said, 17 persons lost their lives and 81 sustained injuries in these 29 consequential train accidents. Mr. Vaishnaw said, two crore 89 lakh rupees have been paid by the Railways as ex-gratia amount to the next of kin of deceased and injured in train accidents.
The Minister informed that safety is the highest priority of Indian Railways and several steps have been taken to enhance safety in trains. He said the Kavach system has already been deployed on one thousand 548 route kilometres. He added that work is in progress for the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors on 3,000 route kilometres.
