Railways post best safety figures in four decades, shows data till March

The Indian Railways has registered its best safety figures in almost four decades in 2018-2019 till March, data has shown.

The number of consequential accidents has come down from 1,130 in 1980-81 to mere 59 (94.8 per cent reduction) in 2018-19. During the same period, the fatality figure has come down from 658 in 1981-82 to 37 in 2018-19 (94.4 per cent reduction).

Last year, 2017-18, accidents had come down to 73.

"The internationally-recognised measure of safety namely Accidents Per Million Train Kilometres has also shown remarkable improvement during this period.

"The number of Accidents Per Million Train Kilometres came down from a high figure of 2.20 in 1981-82 to an all-time low figure of 0.06 in 2018-19. This shows that the Indian Railways is poised towards zero-accident mode," a senior official said.

The official said continuous safety measures adopted by the national transporter has resulted in a steady dip in casualties and injuries among passengers as well in the past five years.

While between 1990-1995, an average of more than 500 accidents took place every year over railways, with around 2,400 deaths and 4,300 injured in those five years, a decade later between 2013-2018, an average of around 110 accidents took place every year which killed around 990 people and injured about 1,500 people, according to data available with PTI.

During 2018-2019, the number of accidents took at 59, with 37 deaths and 108 injured.