Lok Sabha Question No. 799 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-26
Subject: Train Accidents
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Manoj Rajoria

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 799 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.06.2019

## TRAIN ACCIDENTS

799.  DR. MANOJ RAJORIA:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken concrete steps to reduce the number of train accidents;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the number of train accidents that occurred during the last three years;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  put  in  place  a  mechanism  for  the post  failure  event  analysis  for  the  identification  of  the  role  of operational issues and other factors in such accidents; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

## (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

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

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (d)  OF UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO  799  BY  DR.  MANOJ  RAJORIA  TO  BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 26.06.2019 REGARDING TRAIN ACCIDENTS

(a) & (b):  Yes, Sir. Indian Railways have taken several key measures, as a  result  of  which  the  number  of  consequential  train  accidents  have decreased from 118 in 2013-14 to 104 in 2016-17, to 73 in 2017-18 and further to 59 in 2018-19. These are the lowest ever figures in the history of Indian Railways.

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  of  passengers.  Following  steps/measures  have been taken to prevent accidents:-

1. Rashtriya  Rail  Sanraksha  Kosh  (RRSK)  has  been  introduced  in 2017-18  for replacement/renewal/upgradation  of  critical satety assets, with a corpus of ₹ 1 lakh crore for five years, having annual outlay of ₹ 20000 crore.
2. Indian Railways has already adopted the technological upgradation in  safety  aspects  of  coaches  and  wagons  by  way  of  introducing Modified Centre Buffer Couplers, Bogie Mounted Air Brake System (BMBS),  improved  suspension  design  and  provision  of  Automatic fire & smoke detection system in coaches. These modifications are being  provided  in  newly  manufactured  coaches  and  wagons  on  a regular basis.
3. Conventional ICF design coaches being replaced with LHB design coaches of Mail/Express trains in phased manner.
4. A GPS based Fog Pass device is being provided to loco pilots  in fog affected  areas  which  enables  loco  pilots  to  know  the  exact
5. distance of the approaching landmarks like signals, level crossing gates etc.
5. In  order  to  improve  safety,  modern  track  structure  consisting  of Prestressed Concrete Sleeper (PSC), 60 KG, 90 or higher Ultimate Tensile  Strength  (UTS)  rails,  fanshaped  layout  turnout  on  PSC sleepers,  Steel  Channel  Sleepers  on  girder  bridges  is  used  while carrying out primary track renewals.
6. Long rail panels of 260 M/130M length are being manufactured at the steel plant to minimize number of Alumino Thermit joints in the track.
7. Provision of Thick Web Switches (TWS) is planned for all important routes of IR. To expedite provision of TWS, procurement of Thick Web Switches has been decentralized to zonal railways.
8. Ultrasonic Flaw Detection (USFD) testing of rails to detect flaws and timely removal of defective rails.
9. Mechanization of track maintenance is being carried out to reduce human errors and track management system has been introduced on  Indian  Railways  for  development  of  database  and  decision support system and to decide rationalize maintenance requirement and optimize inputs.
10. Electrical/Electronic Interlocking System with centralized operation  of  points  and  signals  are  being  provided  to  eliminate accident  due  to  human  failure  and  to  replace  old  mechanical systems.  Track  Circuiting of stations to enhance  safety  for verification  of  track  occupancy  by  electrical  means  instead  of human element.   Axle  Counter  for  Automatic  clearance  of  Block Section (BPAC) to ensure complete arrival of train without manual intervention  before  granting  line  clear  to  the  next  train  and  to reduce human element.
11. Train Protection and Warning System: Train Protection and Warning  System  (TPWS)  based  on  European  Technology  ETCS Level-1,  a  proven    Automatic  Train  Protection  (ATP)  System  to avoid train accident /collision on account of human error of Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) or over speeding, has been provided on (i) Noapara - Kavi Subhash section of Kolkata Metro (28 RKMs) (ii) Chennai - Gumidipundi suburban section of Southern Railway (50 RKMs), Basin Bridge - Arrakkonam section of Southern Railway (67 RKMs)  (iii)  Hazrat  Nizamuddin  -  Agra  section  of  Northern/North Central Railway (200 RKMs).
12. Auxiliary Warning System (AWS): An ATP called Auxiliary Warning System (AWS) is presently    functional on 413 RKMs in the Mumbai suburban  section  of  Central  Railway  (289  RKMs)  and  Western Railway (124 RKMs).
13. Train  Collision  Avoidance  System  (TCAS):  TCAS  is  an  Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System being developed in association with 3  Indian  manufacturers.    The  system  has  been  installed  on Lingampalli  -  Vikarabad  -  Wadi,  Vikarabad  -  Bidar  section  (250 RKMs) on South Central Railway. Extensive field trials and safety validation  of  the  system  to  Safety  Integrity  Level  4  (SIL-4)  by Independent Safety Assessors (ISA) has been completed. Product of  all  the  3  firms  has  been  approved  by  RDSO  for  developmental order for speeds up to 110 Kmph in Absolute Block Sections.
15. (c)  &  (d):  Each  and  every  consequential  train  accident  on  Indian Railways  (IR)  is  inquired  into  either  by  the  Commission  of  Railways Safety  under  the  Ministry  of  Civil  Aviation  or  by  Departmental  Enquiry Committee  to  analyze  for  the  identification  of  the  role  of  operational issues  and  other  factors  in  train  accidents.  Every  inquiry  gives  its findings  about  the  cause  of  the  accident,  fixes  responsibility  and

suggests  measures  to  prevent  accidents.  Various  corrective  measures are taken by the Railways as per the findings of the inquiry reports so as to improve the safety aspect over the Indian Railways. For  post  accident  analysis,  a  Crew  Voice  &  Video  Recording System  (similar  to  Black  Box  provided  in  airplanes)  is  developed  for recording  of  crew  communication/interaction  in  loco  along  with  track side view. This system is provided on 05 locomotives for fields trials. *****