BT Online New Delhi Last Updated: August 23, 2017 | 12:43 IST
After Kalinga-Utkal Express derailment that killed at least 21 people in Uttar Pradesh last week and Kaifyat-Express derailment that injured more than 70 people, Indian Railways has decided to recruit close to 2,00,000 workers to put safety back on its tracks. The hiring will be made over the next couple of years for workers who will be responsible for patrolling and maintenance of 64,000-km-long network of tracks.
In all, Indian Railways will invest close to Rs 15,000 crore in the current fiscal to fix the snags on its network. For this purpose Indian Railways has created a fund named 'Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh' (RRSK), according to a report in the Economic Times.
Other safety measures being planned are a pilot run of the sensor technology that highlights any cracks in tracks and stopping the production of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coaches. The latter accounts for 90 per cent of total coaches of Indian Railways. They will be replaced with safer Linke Hofmann Busch(LHB) coaches of German design. It has anti-climbing feature that prevent the rolling stock from piling over each other in case of accidents, thus minimizing the number of casualties.
Additionally, procurement of more than 100 track inspection vehicles is also on the cards.
Indian Railways, one of the world's largest railway networks, boasts of a poor safety record. In the last three years the no. of train derailments have gone up from 49 to 78 while 650 people have lost their lives to train accidents.
