Massive achievement! Indian Railways achieves this feat for first time in 166 years

Indian Railways has achieved a massive a feat by ensuring that there were no deaths in accidents for almost a year. This is the first time that national transporter has managed this in its 166 years history. The achievement was made public by Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal on Thursday. Goyal credited the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and the government's focus on safety for the claim dubbing it a record achievement. 

"Railways itihaas ka sarvashreshta record, sarkar ke yatri suraksha ko sarvopari mannne aur uskey liye kiye gaye prayaso ka nateeja hai ki April 2019 se ki ek bhi yatri ki train durghatna me mrityu nahi hui hai (Best record in Railway history: Government's primary focus on passenger safety and the steps taken have ensured that there were no deaths in train accidents since April 2019," Goyal tweeted in Hindi.      

Goyal also tweeted a video which claimed that in order to ensure passenger and commuter safety, the video claimed during 2019-20 a record 1,274 manned level crossings were removed. This is almost double of 631 such crossings being removed in 2018-19.

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In the previous year, as many as 1,309 road-over and under bridges were constructed across the country to enhance the safety of commuters. In the same period, as many as 1,367 bridges were inaugurated in the year gone by.

In a separate development, the Indian Ralways has decided to terminate the contract of a Chinese company due to "poor progress" on the signalling and telecommunication work on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor's 417-km section between Kanpur and Mughalsarai. The Railways had given the contract worth Rs 471 crore to Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication Group in 2016.

The move comes after 20 Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.

However, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Limited (DFCCIL), the implementing agency of the project, made it clear that there was no link between the border face-off and the contract's termination, the process for which had started as early as January 2019.