india

Updated: Mar 02, 2019 10:08 IST

The Indian Railways made safety its foremost priority and achieved its best ever safety record in 2018-19, the rail ministry said on Friday as a booklet on its achievements over the past five years was released by minister Piyush Goyal on Friday.

Citing figures, Railway Board chairman VK Yadav said there had been an 81% drop in the number of deaths from 152 in 2013-14 to 29 up to January 31, 2019.

“This is a result of holistic efforts. All unmanned level crossings on broad gauge network have been eliminated,” said Goyal.

“The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been created for safety expenditure,” said Goyal.

“We have achieved everything we set out to do in our [2014 general election] manifesto,” he claimed.

The minister, who also handles the coal portfolio, said there had been tremendous progress in the last five years, with both ministries taking up new projects on a large scale and implementing them swiftly with an honest approach.

Goyal made it a point to highlight the bullet train project and the recently launched Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express, claiming these were achievements unheard of so far. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project would be completed by 2023 as scheduled, while the hi-tech, energy-efficient Vande Bharat Express would be started on several more routes.

“In the last few years, we have attained the unattainable,” he said. Goyal said the railways had focused on the North-east and with the completion of the 4.94-km Bogibeel Bridge — the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India — the travel time from Itanagar to Dibrugarh had been cut to five hours from 24 hours.

Passenger amenities were being improved at railway stations by installing escalators and elevators and providing free wi-fi, a railway spokesperson said.

“The total capital expenditure from 2014-19 is Rs 5.1 lakh crore, which is more than double the total expenditure during 2009-14. The railways is connecting India at a faster pace with a 59% increase in the average pace of commissioning new line/doubling/3rd & 4th line projects from 4.1 kms during 2009-14 per day to 6.53 kms per day during 2014-18,” Yadav said.