At least 45 cases of attempted track sabotage in 2016: Indian Railways

Indian Railways said on Wednesday that at least 45 cases of rail track sabotage were reported during 2016 and that it is working 'round the clock' to avoid any untoward incidents.

"Form January 2016 to December 2016 there were at least 45 cases of alleged sabotage with the railway tracks," Member Traffic in the Railway Board Mohammad Jamshed told reporters here.

"There were seven cases of explosion of tracks, three cases of track tampering, 18 cases of extremist activities, 13 cases of recoveries of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) along the railway tracks."

Citing example of the attempted sabotage on the railway tracks in Bihar and Maharashtra, Jamshed said: "The railway employees tracked the attempted sabotage on time in Hajipur and Mumbai division, and the railways has asked all its supervisors to monitor the tracks properly."

Referring to the Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express derailment in naxal zone in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district on Saturday night Jamshed elaborated: "Two similar incidents were reported in the same division area in the month of August 2016, which led to the derailment of two trains."

According to Jamshed, disruptions caused on the railway tracks due to several factors have led to a loss of over seven million tonnes of freight orders worth Rs 700 crore.

"Similarly punctuality of 3,500 mail and express trains were affected resulting in the revenue loss of Rs 100 crore," he said.

Following two major accidents in November and December in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur area, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had invited the Korean expert team to review the Indian railway tracks.

The Korean team arrived in India on January 16 and carried out detailed field inspection and rail and weld fracture analysis till January 24.

The Korean team submitted its 32 page detailed technical report to the Railway Ministry.

Asked about the Korean team's report, Jamshed disclosed: "They have gone through our system and mechanism and they have suggested several measures which the railway will undertake soon."

--IANS

aks-rv/vm