'Significant' drop in rail accidents in Western Railways, only 3 in 9 months

The Western Railway (WR) said today that enhanced safety measures, including work site inspections and training sessions for the staff on key issues, has led to a "significant" drop in train accidents across its six divisions.

The WR said that while eight rail-related accidents had been registered in its network in the last fiscal, only three accidents were reported in the last nine months.

"Last fiscal, only eight rail-related incidents were reported across all the zones. Considering the safety measures that we have taken up, we are confident that this number will go down further in the current year.

In the past nine months of current financial year, only three accidents have been registered," WR chief spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar said.

A statement issued by WR said that owing to the enhanced safety measures, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot divisions have achieved the record of zero accidents during the 2016-17 fiscal.

"The number of rail-related accidents in Mumbai division have dropped drastically by 75 per cent this year. The accidents in Ratlam division have come down by 33 per cent as compared to the previous fiscal," it said.

In 2016-17, no train accident at unmanned level crossing was reported, the statement said adding, "Even this year, all the best possible efforts are being taken to maintain similar safety performance."

After a spate of rail accidents in the recent years, the Railway Ministry has laid down strict parameters and have asked zonal railways to ensure zero tolerance over safety issues.

Talking about the measures taken to curb derailments and other accidents, Bhakar said periodic monitoring is done by the branch officers of the Engineering, Signal & Telecommunication departments and super-checked by the Safety department.

"Shunting Melas (training sessions on how to move trains between the yards and platforms) are organised at major stations and yards and attended by senior officials at various locations in the division during the special safety drives. Safety seminars are also organised," he said.

Frequent work site inspection, regular safety drives and most importantly deployment of 'Gate Mitra' (gate counsellors) at all unmanned level crossings and they have played a great role in preventing accidents at these spots," Bhakar said.

"Safety drives and joint ambush checks with civil police, identification of vulnerable unmanned gates and temporary manning of gates have extensively helped in reducing accidents," he added.