Lok Sabha Question No. 4480 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-29
Subject: Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: SHIVAJI ADHALRAO PATIL, Shrirang Appa Barne, VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT, ANANDRAO  ADSUL, Adhikari Dibyendu, PRITAM GOPINATH MUNDE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4480 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.03.2017

## RASHTRIYA RAIL SANRAKSHA KOSH

## 4480.  SHRI ADHALRAO PATIL SHIVAJIRAO:

SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE:

SHRI VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT:

SHRI ANANDRAO ADSUL:

SHRI DIBYENDU ADHIKARI:

DR. PRITAM GOPINATH MUNDE:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  decided  to  lay  path  for  major safety overhaul in the Railways and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  the  Indian  Railways  has  identified  critical  areas  and guiding  principles  for  deployment  of  Rashtriya  Rail  Sanraksha Kosh(RRSK) funds for bringing out perceptible improvement in safety  scenario  over  Indian  Railways  and  if  so,  the  details thereof;
- (c) whether the  Indian Railways has decided to fill up about two lakh vacancies of safety personnel in a time bound manner in the next five years;
- (d) if  so,    the    details  thereof    and    the  steps  taken  by  the  Union Government thereon;
- (e) whether there  is a need to de-stress the rail traffic to ensure that the safety inspection aspect is not compromised; and

(f) if so, the steps taken  to address  the excessive  lack  of manpower, including the gangman, on the ground level?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## (SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

- (a)  to  (f): A Statement is laid on the Table of  the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (f)  OF UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  4480    BY  SHRI  ADHALRAO  PATIL SHIVAJIRAO, SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE, SHRI VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT, SHRI ANANDRAO ADSUL, SHRI DIBYENDU ADHIKARI AND         DR. PRITAM GOPINATH MUNDE TO BE  ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA  ON  29.03.2017  REGARDING  RASHTRIYA  RAIL  SANRAKSHA KOSH

(a): Safety is accorded the highest priority by Indian Railways  and all possible  steps  are  undertaken  on  a  continual  basis  including  upgradation  of  technology  to  aid  safe  running  of  trains.  These  include replacement  of  over-aged  assets,  elimination  of  unmanned  level crossings,  adoption  of  suitable  technologies  for  upgradation  and maintenance of track, rolling stock, signalling and interlocking systems, safety drives,  greater  emphasis  on  training  of  officials  and inspections  at  regular  intervals  to  monitor  and  educate  staff  for observance of safe practices. Safety devices/systems used to prevent accidents include complete track circuiting, provision of Block Proving  Axle  Counters  (BPAC),  Train  Protection  Warning  Systems (TPWS),  Colour  Light  LED  Signals,  Vigilance  Control  Device  (VCD), usage  of  60  kg  rails  and  Pre-stressed  Concrete  Sleepers,  long  rail panels,  better  welding  technology,  digital  types  of  machines  for ultrasonic flaw detection (USFD), electronic monitoring of tracks using track recording cars (TRC) and portable oscillation monitoring system

(OMS),  progressive  use  of  Linke  Hofmann  Busch  (LHB)  Coaches, Centre Buffer Coupler with Integral Coach Factory (ICF) Coaches, etc.

Other  measures  include  training  of  loco  pilots  and  other  safety category  staff,  improvement  of  their  working  conditions  including proper rest and periodic medical examinations etc. Besides, periodic safety  drives,  inspections  as  per  laid  down  schedules,  patrolling  of tracks, footplate inspections and safety reviews at various levels are regularly  conducted  to  continuously  monitor  and  improve  safety aspects of the Railways.

(b): Hon'ble Minister of Finance has announced in Para 74 of his Budget Speech 2017-18 as under:-

'For  passenger  safety,  a  'Rashtriya  Rail  Sanraksha  Kosh'  will  be created  with  a  corpus  of ` 1  lakh  crore  over  a  period  of  five  years. Besides seed capital from the Government, the Railways will arrange the balance resources from their own revenues and other sources.'

Accordingly,  a  Fund  namely  'RRSK'  with  a  corpus  of ` 1  lakh crore  has  been  created  and  an  outlay  of ` 20,000  crore  has  been provided  in  2017-18.    Funds  under  RRSK  in  2017-18  include ` 5000 crore  from  Capital  (Budgetary  Support), ` 10000  crore  from  Railway Safety  Fund  received  as  Railways'  share  from  Central  Road  fund, ` 4000 crore from DRF and ` 1000 crore from Railways' revenue surplus.

RRSK has been allotted to safety works under various plan heads  of Traffic  Facilities,  Rolling  Stock,  Road  Safety  Works-Level  Crossings, Road Safety Works-Road Over/Under Bridges, Track Renewals, Bridge Works, Workshops

Works, Signalling and Telecom Works, Other Electrical Traction Distribution Works, Machinery and Plant, including Production Units, Training/HRD etc. (c)  and  (d):  Occurrence  and  filling  up  of  vacancies  on  the  Railways from  open  market  is  a  continuous  process.    The  recruitment  in  Pay Band 1 ` 5200-20,200 having Grade  pay ` 1800/-(now level 1) is made by Railway Recruitment Cells (RRCs).  The policy of Railways is to fill the same as per operational requirement. Some of the vacancies are likely to remain unfilled at a particular point of time. (e):  Density  of  rail  traffic  does  not  have  any  direct  bearing  on  the quality  of  Safety  Inspections  conducted  by  the  Indian  Railways. Periodic  safety    drives,  inspections  as  per  laid  down  schedules  and safety services at various levels are regularly conducted to continuously monitor and improve safety aspects of the Railways. (f):  Arising  of  vacancies  is  a  continuous  process  due  to  normal retirements, voluntary retirements, deaths and on account of creation of posts etc.  Similarly, filling up of vacancies is a continuous process through various modes of intake.  There is always a time lag between occurrence of vacancies and processing the same for filling up, which involves  notification  of  vacancies,  holding  examinations,  finalization of select panels and issue of appointment letters. On Indian Railways, majority of regular systematic Track Maintenance  activities  are  done  by  Track  Machines  owned  and operated  by  permanent  staff.  Total  20  Track  Maintenance  works mostly pertaining to track renewal activities and activities incidental to  track  maintenance  have  been  identified  for  execution  through contracts.

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