Railway track renewals have picked up pace in the past seven months-- the time since Piyush Goyal took charge of the railway ministry. Some 3,300 km of rail tracks have been laid afresh -- that is about 700 km more than what the Railways accomplished in 2016-17.
“A total of 3,296 km has been renewed in the seven months since October last year, while 2,597 km of renewal was carried out during last financial year. This was mainly due to the increased availability of rail since January this year,” said a government official. Goyal took charge of the ministry in September last year after a series of accidents, following which the minister’s prime focus was on safety-related measures.
2,075 km of tracks underwent upgradation since January, with the month of March seeing the highest ever track renewal numbers of 642 km. “In April, it has come down to around 350 km, but the pace of work is going to increase as the Board has directed that there will be no dearth of funds for safety-related works,” he added.
The upgradation of tracks include replacement and strengthening of old tracks. For the past few months, the railways had been citing track renewal as the primary reason for the delay in train movements. Railways had recently invited a Rs 20 billion global tender for the procurement of tracks for the coming years.
International companies like Sumitomo Corporation, Angang Group International, Voestalpine Schienen, East Metals, CRM Hong Kong, British Steel France Rail, Atlantic Steel and Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) had participated. The bidding had faced stiff opposition from the Steel ministry which said that it is not in alignment with the Make in India policy.
SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) is the only unit from which railways is currently procuring tracks, both for laying new lines as well as for track replacements. On an average, the plant supplies about 700,000-800,000 tonnes of rail tracks to the national transporter.
Owing to the renewed focus on safety, during the last financial year, the number of accidents dropped to a double-digit figure of 73 for the first time in recent years. During the financial year 2017-18, a total of 4405 km of tracks were upgraded.