Lok Sabha Question No. 2260 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-08-03
Subject: Railway Safety and Operations
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: A.T. (NANA) PATIL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2260 TO BE ANSWERED ON 03.08.2015

## RAILWAY SAFETY AND OPERATIONS

†2260. SHRI A.T. NANA PATIL:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Railways  are  aware  that  several  trains  are  cancelled  and most of the trains run extremely late in foggy weather;
- (b)  if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the  remedial  action  taken  in  this regard;
- (c) whether the Railways propose to separate the roles of regulator, operator and investigator by bringing changes in Railway Safety Act;
- (d)  if  so,  the  time  by  which  it  is  likely  to  be  made  by  when  along  with  the details thereof;
- (e)whether the Railways propose to bring the commission of Railway Safety under the Ministry of Railways; and
- (f)  if  so,  by  when  and  if  not,  the  reasons  therefor  along  with  the  details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

( SHRI MANOJ SINHA )

- (a)  &(b)  Yes,  Madam.  The  occurrence  of  fog  that  engulfs  the  Northern, North  Central,  Eastern,  North  Eastern,  Northeast  Frontier,  North  Western and  West  Central  Railways  during  December-February  period  leads  to reduced mobility of coaching and freight trains owing to severely impaired

visibility faced by the drivers and also due to safety protocol put in place in the fog affected areas.  Fog not only leads to delay in trains but also leads to severe reduction in line capacity of the affected section, particularly on certain  trunk  routes  that  have  heavy  rail  traffic  and  are  already  having severe line capacity constraints.  Therefore, Railways cancel trains during foggy weather on busy routes to allow adequate spacing between successive trains and also to ensure safety of passengers.

During  2014-2015  foggy  weather,  27  pairs  of  Mail/Express  trains  were cancelled from 31.12.2014 to 15.02.2015. All these trains were restored with effect from  16.02.2015, except 14309/14310 (Ujjain-Dehradun) and 14265/14266 (Varanasi-Dehradun) which were restored from 21/22.02.2015.

The following steps are taken   during fog for  running trains on time:

- (i) Monitoring of running of trains at Board, Zonal and Divisional levels, on an almost real time basis through the Integrated Coaching Management System.
- (ii) Providing scratch rakes to obviate rescheduling of trains owing to late arrival of link rakes due to fog.
- (iii) Improving Maintenance practices so that trains running late can be returned from platform after the mandatory safety and cleanliness inspections.
- (c)  to  (f)  High  Level  Safety  Review  Committee  (Kakodar  Committee)  has recommended that Railway Safety Authority should be set up as a statutory body independent of Railway Board under the Government. Railway Safety Authority (RSA) would have broad functions of safety regulation, accident investigation  and  safety  management.  The  Committee  also  recommended that  the  institution  of  Commissioner  of  Railway  Safety  (CRS)  should  be merged with the RSA.

The recommendation of the Kakodar Committee are under examination in the Ministry of Railways.

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