Those behind train mishaps will be punished: Minister

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday assured the Lok Sabha that those responsible for train mishaps in the last couple of months will be brought to justice, and said that the government will set up a safety fund of Rs 1 lakh crore.

"Safety has been one of our priority areas. We are already working on a strategy... we are creating a safety fund of Rs 1 lakh crore," Prabhu said, replying to a debate on the demand for grants for the Railways.

The Minister said the railway safety record has improved.

Giving figures on accidents per million train km, he said the accident ratio has come down from 0.23 in 2007 to 0.11 in 2014-15 and 0.10 in 2015-16.

"Unfortunately, we had some unfortunate mishaps. The causes of those accidents and people responsible for them are under investigation by the National Investigation Agency."

"I can assure the house that whosoever plays with innocent lives of passengers will not go unpunished and we will take action against them," he said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating the role of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in the Indore-Patna Express train accident in November 2016.

It is also probing the March 7 blast in the Bhopal-Ujjain Passenger train.

--IANS

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