(a) whether despite many recommendations from inquiry
committees at different times, accident rate in the
Railways has not come down;
(b) whether several accidents took place on account
of fault by Railway staff; and
(c) if so, the action taken against the errant staff
during the last three years?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS (SHRI NITISH KUMAR)
(a) to (c) : A statement is laid on the Table of the Sabha.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF LOK
SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.265 BY SHRIMATI D. M. VIJAYA
KUMARI TO BE ANSWERED ON 09-08-2001 REGARDING TRAIN
ACCIDENT
(a): The universally accepted index of train accidents is
number of accidents per million train kilometres. The
index which stood at 5.5 in 1960-61 has come down to 0.57
per million train kilometres during the year 1996-97. The
index stabilised at this level for the years 1997-98 and
1998-99. The continuous reduction in number of train
accidents as also the incidence of train accidents per
million train kilometres is indicative of sustained
improvement in safety performance. However, there has
been a marginal increase in this index for the year 1999-
2000 when it was 0.65.
The reduction in the above index is partly due to
various steps taken as per recommendations of Inquiry
Committees. These steps mainly include track circuiting,
modification of signalling circuiting, provision of walkie-
talkie sets for improved communication, provision of LED
based flashing lamps, mechanisation of track maintenance,
testing of rails by Ultrasonic Flaw Detectors etc.
(b): Yes, Sir. During the last 3 years, the number of
accidents due to fault by railway staff has been as under:-
1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000
Accidents due to fault by 262 268 287 railway staff
Total Number of Accidents 396 397 463
Percentage 66.16 67.50 61.98