In PM Narendra Modi government's second tenure, train accidents reduced to 110 from 468
New Delhi: With Railways witnessing a significant reduction in rail accidents in the last three years in comparison to train mishap instances reported in 2014 and onwards, it seems the efforts of the Railways Ministry to put a check on accidents by improving safety measures have started yielding positive results as the national transporter has reported total 110 train mishaps from 2019-20 to 2021-22 in compare to 468 such accidents in the first five years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime (2014-15 to 2018-19).
Going by the data provided by Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to Lok Sabha on Wednesday, it seems the tenure of the incumbent Railways Minister is also proving a boon for the national transporter as 33 derailment incidents reported from 2021-22 to till July 26 in the current fiscal.
Also, three incidents of collision, one level crossing accident and six instances of fire in trains have been reported during the tenure of Vaishnaw --- a bureaucrat-turned-politician. As per a written reply by Vaishnaw to a question asked by Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, eight incidents of train collisions were reported from 2019-20 to 2021-22, while 16 such instances happened in the first five years of the Modi government.
"Also, 306 train derailment incidents reported from 2014 to 2019, which reduced to 84 in the last three years," the minister stated in his written reply to Lok Sabha.
The ministry has also registered a drastic reduction in level crossing accidents in the last three years as it has reduced to just three from 130 such accidents from 2014-15 to 2018-19. However, the data provided by the ministers shows no major reduction in the instances of fire in trains as it has come down to 15 from 16.
In 2022-23 (till July 26), one collision, six derailments and two fire in train incidents have been reported and no level crossing accident has been reported so far.
On phasing out ICF coaches, the minister said, "It has been decided to phase out ICF coaches with LHB coaches. To this effect, the service life of ICF coaches has been reduced from 25 years to 20 years and mid life rehabilitation (MLR) has been stopped for ICF coaches since April 1, 2020.
Also, Railways is now manufacturing only LHB coaches from April 2018 and more than 30,000 LHB coaches have already been manufactured till June 2022."
