Lok Sabha Question No. 4494 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-29
Subject: Safety Plan after Recent Train Accidents
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR, JOSE K. MANI, MOHANBHAI KALYANJIBHAI KUNDARIYA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4494 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.03.2017

## SAFETY PLAN AFTER RECENT TRAIN ACCIDENTS

†4494.   SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR: SHRI JOSE K. MANI: SHRI KUNDARIYA MOHAN BHAI KALYANJI BHAI:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  working  on  any  safety  plan  after taking lessons from the several fatal train accidents that happened recently and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)    whether the railways is also  working  on  any  scheme  of installing anti-collision devices in the trains under the safety action plan; and
- (c)  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  details  of  the  other  safety measures being taken which will prevent train accidents in future?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

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

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4494 BY SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR, SHRI JOSE K. MANI AND SHRI KUNDARIYA MOHAN BHAI KALYANJI BHAI TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 29.03.2017 REGARDING SAFETY PLAN AFTER RECENT TRAIN ACCIDENTS

( a): Indian Railways accord highest priority to safety in train operations. Safety measures taken on Indian Railways is a continuous process which envisage accident prevention and mitigation directed towards continuous reduction in risk level to its customers. This is done by adopting new technologies and improvement in asset reliability to reduce human dependency.  In the Budget  2017-18,  setting  up  of  a  Rashtriya  Rail  Sanraksha  Kosh (RRSK) has been announced with a corpus of ₹ 1  lakh  crore  over  a period  of  5  years.    A  provision  of ₹ 20,000  crore  has  been  made  in Budget 2017-18 towards RRSK to fund essential safety works.

(b) & (c): Railways have introduced new technologies such as Train Protection Warning System (TPWS)/ Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)  as  means  of  Automatic  Train  Protection  on  pilot  section  to prevent  accident  due  to  over  speeding  &  passing  signal  at  danger. Further  the  TPWS  System  is  under  implementation  at  3330  RKMs section  on  Suburban/High-density  Route.    During  2017-18,  work  of TCAS System at 1427 RKM has also been sanctioned. Other Safety measures  taken  to  prevent  accidents  include  Vigilance  Control Device  (VCD)  to  check  alertness  of  Loco  Pilot,  Electrical/Electronic Interlocking System with Centralized operations of points to eliminate human failure, Complete Track Circuiting, Axle Counter for Automatic Clearance of Block Section (BPAC), interlocking of manned

Level  Crossing  gates  and  replacement  of  filament  type  signal  with Light  Emitting  Diode  (LED)  Signals.    Safety  measures  taken  to improve  safety of Railway  Track  include  usage  of  prestressed concrete  sleepers,  60  Kg,  90  or  higher  Ultimate  Tensile    Strength (UTS) Rails, Long Rail Panels of 260m/130m length, provision of Thick Web Switches (TWS) for all important routes and Track Management System.  It has also been decided to gradually phase out ICF Coaches and  replace  them  by  new  design  light  weight  modern  technology Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) Coaches, introduce high capacity Centre Buffer  Couplers  (CBC)  and  Bogie  Mounted  Brake  System  (BMBS). Indian  Railways  is  gradually  moving  towards  automatic  condition monitoring of Rolling Assets. As a part of this initiative, Railways are installing Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILD), Online Monitoring of Rolling  Stock  System  (OMRS)  and  Centralized  Bearing  Monitoring System (CBMS) in a phased manner.

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