NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of the horrific train accident near Kanpur in November in which 143 people were killed, the Ministry of Railways after 19 years has decided to double the compensation paid so far for the death or injury to a passenger in rail accidents.Effective from January 1, 2017, the family of a deceased person in a rail accident will now get a compensation of Rs 8 lakh instead of Rs 4 lakh paid so far. A person facing a serious amputation, like loss of a hand or foot, loss of eye-sight, severe facial disfigurement and suffering absolute deafness will also get a compensation of Rs 8 lakh instead of Rs 4 lakh so far. The compensation for 34 other kinds of injuries has also been doubled to Rs 7.2 lakh-Rs 64000 now from the earlier levels. The Ministry of Railways has done so on Thursday by amending the Railways Accidents and Untoward Incidents (Compensation) Rules, 1990, which were last amended in 1997.The step also comes after the Bombay High Court had recently observed that the government must enhance the compensation paid to rail accident victims to ensure that the compensation amount marches with time and takes into consideration the increased inflation rates since 1997. The Delhi high in 2015 had also asked the Railways Ministry to revise the compensation paid in rail accidents, pointing to a disparity in compensation paid to railway accident victims and those who die in an air crash, since the railway compensation amount was last fixed in 1997. The court orders had come in the wake of the rising number of rail accidents in the country.