Indian Railways have taken various steps for the safety and security of passengers in trains as well as railway stations. Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday (August 9) listed out the various steps taken by the Ministry of Railways to ensure passengers safety.
Ashwini Vaishnaw highlighted some of the key measures put in place by the Indian Railways like Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK), Electrical/Electronic Interlocking Systems, Complete Track Circuiting among others.
Key measures taken by Indian Railways to enhance safety
RRSK, which was introduced in 2017-18, allocated a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over five years for critical safety asset replacement, renewal, and upgrading. By 2021-22, over Rs 1.08 lakh crore was spent on RRSK projects. Moreover, the ministry has also implemented an electrical interlocking system at 6,427 stations as of May 2023 to eliminate human error-related accidents by centrally operating points and signals.
In addition to this, the ministry has enhanced the safety of train operations by installing interlocking level crossing gates at 11,093 level crossings across the nation by May 2023. Complete Track Circuiting has also been installed at 6,377 stations by May 2023 to verify track occupancy using electrical means, boosting safety.
The Indian Railways has also shared detailed instructions and protocols on signalling while emphasising the mandatory correspondence checks, alteration work procedures, and completion drawings.
The Ministry of Railways in a press release said, “All locomotives are equipped with Vigilance Control Devices (VCD) to ensure alertness of Loco Pilots. Retro-reflective sigma boards are provided on the mast which is located two OHE masts prior to the signals in electrified territories to warn the crew about the signal ahead when visibility is low due to foggy weather. A GPS based Fog Safety Device (FSD) is provided to loco pilots in fog affected areas which enables loco pilots to know the distance of the approaching landmarks like signals, level crossing gates etc.”
Modern track structure consisting of 60kg, 90 Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) rails, Prestressed Concrete Sleeper (PSC) Normal/Wide base sleepers with elastic fastening, fanshaped layout turnout on PSC sleepers, Steel Channel/H-beam Sleepers on girder bridges is used while carrying out primary track renewals, the release added.