New Delhi: The Railway Board on Friday asserted that 2018 was the “safest year in the history of Indian Railways”.
It also outlined that the last unmanned level crossing in the country was eliminated on Thursday evening.
“If we compare the statistics, the number of accidents was 118 in 2013-14, it was 57 in 2017-18 while in the year 2018-19 up to December (2018) it was reduced to 47,” said Railways Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav while speaking at a press conference about the decline in accidents.
“In 2014 there were more than 8000 unmanned gates in the country. We have been able to fully eliminate it and yesterday evening we eliminated the last gate,” said Yadav adding, “As of today there are no unmanned railway crossing gates”.
“We are also focusing on eliminating the manned level crossing gates also. We are making efforts to interlock some of the gates and provide some technical aides at the gates,” said the Chairman of the Board.
He also said that an indigenous system termed as Train Collision Avoiding System (TCAS) is being developed and its trials are already going on the South-Central Railways. “We are also planning to completely switch over our production of coaches to LHV coaches,” he said.
Keeping in view the worksite safety of the trackmen, the chairman informed that they are provided with a gadget called “Rakshak” which will give advance warning of any approaching train.
“It is an advance warning system that will warn trackmen in case any train is approaching,” said Yadav.
He said that the priorities of the Railways are safety, capacity creation, mobility improvement, passenger security and improving services to passengers
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]