Source: https://zeenews.india.com/railways/9-years-of-modi-govt-indian-railways-safer-modern-than-ever-a-look-at-transformation-2614398.html
Publisher: Zee News
As the Narendra Modi led-BJP government is celebrating nine years at the Centre, during the period, the Indian Railways — which still remains one of the preferable mode of transport — has made huge strides in terms of safety. The number of accidents dropped from 1,243 between 2006-07 and 2013-14 to 638 between 2014-15 and 2022-23. Not just accidents, modernization of the Indian Railways has created ripples globally. By deploying technologies like Kavach and making modern trains like Vande Bharat Express, Indian Railways has transformed itself into a modern transporter.
A senior railway ministry official said that after the BJP government came to power, focus has been on improving the safety of passengers and to stop the rail accidents. “With zero tolerance for rail accidents, safety was given the topmost priority in the railways. And the ministry worked towards removing the unmanned railway crossings which posed a grave threat to safety,” the official said. Here’s a look at the achievements:
Reducing Rail Accidents
The efforts of the ministry paid off as the railways was able to bring down the consequential train accidents from 1,243 during the period 2006-07 to 2013-14, to 638 during the period 2014-15 to 2022-23 which is a reduction of 54 per cent on a per year basis, the official pointed out. Accidents per million train kilometers (APMTKM), an important Safety Index, were reduced from 0.23 in 2006-07 to 0.10 in 2013-14, and further to 0.03 in 2022-23, the official highlighted.
In the last five-year period between 2009-2014, 5,687 level crossing gates were eliminated. He said that the ministry had from April 2014 to January 2019, eliminated 8,948 Level Crossing gates, 3,479 of these in 2018-19 alone. The last unmanned level crossing (UMLC) on the broad gauge network of the railways was eliminated on January 31, 2019.
