Lok Sabha Question No. 4361 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-21
Subject: Maintenance of Railway Tracks
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: PRITAM GOPINATH MUNDE, ANANDRAO  ADSUL, SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE, VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT, SHIVAJI ADHALRAO PATIL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4361

TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.03.2018

## MAINTENANCE OF RAILWAY TRACKS

4361.  DR. PRITAM GOPINATH MUNDE: SHRI ANANDRAO ADSUL: DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE: SHRI VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT: SHRI ADHALRAO PATIL SHIVAJIRAO:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  despite  allocation of huge amount for  railway safety  in  the  past,  enough  is  required  to  be  done  in  the matter;
- (b) if  so,  whether  considering  the  various  train  accidents reported during the last one year, the Union Government has made a big allocation to the railways for the safety of the railway passengers and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the  condition, security and monitoring of track is one of the main reasons for the rail accidents;
- (d) if  so,  whether  the  Union  Government  is  considering  that traditional  methods  of  manual  railway  track  inspection and safety has become outdated in present scenario;
- (e) if so, whether the Union Government proposes to consider the  state-of  -the-art  and  high  tech  method  of  monitoring, inspections and  maintenance of the rail tracks; and

- (f) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  time  by  which  the  new technology will be made available and implemented in the Indian Railways?

## 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.  4361  BY  DR.  PRITAM  GOPINATH MUNDE, SHRI ANANDRAO ADSUL, DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE, SHRI  VINAYAK  BHAURAO  RAUT  AND  SHRI  ADHALRAO  PATIL SHIVAJIRAO    TO  BE  ANSWERED  IN  LOK  SABHA  ON  21.03.2018 REGARDING MAINTENANCE OF RAILWAY TRACKS

(a) and  (b): Safety  is  accorded  the  highest  priority  by  Indian Railways and all possible steps are undertaken on a continual basis to prevent accidents and to enhance safety.  These include timely replacement of over-aged assets, 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  safety  inspections  at  regular  intervals  to monitor  and  educate  staff  for  observance  of  safe  practices.  The Railways'  Capital  Outlay  has  been  fixed  at ` 1,20,000  crore  in Revised  Estimate  2017-18,  which  is ` 10,065  crore  higher  than Actual  Expenditure  2016-17  of ` 1,09,935  crore.  To  give  fillip  to passenger  safety,  the  Government  has  introduced  'Rashtriya  Rail Sanraksha Kosh' (RRSK)  in 2017-18  with a corpus of ` 1 lakh crore to  be  spent  over  a  period  of  five  years,  to  clear  the  backlog  of renewal/replacement  of  safety  assents.  The  Capital  Allocation  of 2017-18 also includes ` 20,000 crore under 'Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh' (RRSK) to be spent on identified works under planheads Track

Renewals, Bridge Works, Signalling and Telecommunication  Works, Road Safety Works of Level Crossings and Road Over/Under Bridges, Rolling  Stock,  Traffic  Facilities,  Electrical  Works,  Machinery  and Plant, Workshops, Passenger Amenities  and Training.

(c): Train accidents on Indian Railways occur due to various reasons such as failure of equipment, human errors, sabotage, combination of  factors  etc.    Each  and  every  consequential  train  accident  on Indian Railways is inquired into either by the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation or by the Departmental Inquiry Committee of Railway to determine its reasons. During the current year 2017-18 (from 1 st  April,2017 to 15 th March, 2018), out of total 71 consequential train accidents, 14 accidents were on account of track defects.

(d) to (f): Inspection of Railway Track is done as per Indian Railway Permanent Way (IRPW)  Manual, which requires Inspection of track by mechanized means, supplemented by detailed manual inspection to  ensure  safety.  Induction  of  state  of  the  art  technology  is  a continuous process.  Induction of various state of the art technology for monitoring and inspection of rail tracks have been considered,

such as Integrated Track recording Cars (TRCs), Ground Penetration Radar,  Axle  Box  Mounted  Accelerometers,  Component  Monitoring system and Vehicular Ultra Sonic Flaw Detection (USFD). Maintenance  of  track  is  done  with  fleets  of  state  of  the  art  track maintenance machines deployed over different Zonal Railways.

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