SAFETY, TOP PRIORITY FOR RAILWAYS : SHRI NITISH
KUMAR
A SPECIAL CONFERENCE OF GENERAL
MANAGERS OF ZONAL RAILWAYS ON SAFETY HELD IN NEW DELHI
The Railway Minister,
Shri Nitish Kumar has called upon the General Managers of all
Zonal Railways to constantly endeavour and dedicate themselves
for winning over the confidence of people in the Indian Railway
system. He underlined the fact that the safety of the travelling
people should be primary concern of the entire railway workforce
and all out efforts should be made to ensure it in the fullest
measure. Shri Nitish Kumar was addressing the Special Conference
of General Managers on Safety. The one day Conference has been
specially called to discuss all aspects of safety like analysis
of accidents, accident prevention measures, safety preparedness
with a special reference to rescue and relief operation, safety
audit and inspections, feedback on safety related works out of
Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) and other related issues. The
Conference was attended by General Managers of Zonal Railways.
Besides Shri Nitish Kumar, the Conference was also addressed by
Minister of State for Railways, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Chairman,
Railway Board, Shri I.I.M.S. Rana and other Board Members.
The Railway Minister,
Shri Nitish Kumar pointed out that the entire railway system is
constantly alive and alert for the cause of safety and has evolved
a very comprehensive and elaborate system of monitoring, maintenance
and inspection to ensure safety of the passengers. Shri Kumar
said that Railways take adequate steps to ensure that passenger
safety is not compromised at any cost. He called upon the railway
officials to always keep the system in perfect order and alertness.
Shri Kumar said that each department and section of railways should
perform its duty with full alertness, sincerity and dedication.
The Minister underscored that supervision and monitoring should
be done regularly to ensure that the instructions and manuals
are being strictly adhered to. Shri Kumar pointed out that research
and development work is an ongoing exercise with Indian Railways
and should be enriched with the experiences gained over a period
of time. He said, if need be maintenance technologies available
in other parts of the world could be studied and adapted as per
our own requirements.
The Railway Minister
said that the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) of Rs.17,000
crore was created last year for safety related works and the projects
to be funded from this fund have already been identified and presented
to Parliament. He emphasized that the Fund earmarked for this
can, in no case be spent for any other activity of Railways. The
Minister said that last year an amount of Rs.1400 crore from SRSF
was provided for the safety related works against which Railways
spent Rs.1434 crores under this Head. He said that though the
mobilization of funds from safety surcharge was less than the
target, Railways, however spent the money on safety related works
using its own internal savings which is a positive sign. He said
that people can also be educated about various works scheduled
to be undertaken from the Safety Fund. He said that it is the
responsibility of General Managers to ensure that the Safety Fund
is utilized appropriately within the stipulated time frame .
Referring to the
rescue and relief arrangements during accidents, the Minister
said that a high level Committee has been constituted to review
the disaster management system over Indian Railways under the
Convenorship of Member Mechanical of Railway Board. He said that
the Committee would give recommendations for strengthening and
streamlining the disaster management system in a period of two
months. Among others the Committee would review the existing disaster
management system over Indian Railways related to train accidents
and natural calamities and suggest improvements. Another term
of reference of the Committee is to institute a standing arrangement
with other Central Ministries, State Governments and Armed Forces
to enable quick and smooth restoration operation without any legal
or procedural hurdles. Referring to the misinformation campaign
in some quarters, the Minister asked the General Managers to provide
the correct information in proper perspective to the people and
also educate people about various safety measures to instill a
sense of confidence among them. The Minister also hoped that the
Conference would come out with usual suggestions and conclusions
for making the Indian Railways efficient, passenger friendly,
modern and safe and secure. The Minister assured his full cooperation
to railwaymen in fulfilling their commitments to the nation.
Shri Bandaru Dattatreya,
Minister of State for Railways, while addressing the Conference,
said that the projects under SRSF should be completed within the
stipulated time. Referring to the non-budgetary investment initiative
of the Government for the development of Indian Railways called
National Railway Vikas Yojana, Shri Dattatreya said that the stipulated
investment of Rs.15000 crores in the next five years under this
Yojana would improve the infrastructure leading to safety of rail
travel. Emphasising the need to publicise the good measures and
initiatives undertaken by Railways to increase safety and prevent
accidents., Shri Dattatreya said that it will help in allaying
unnecessary apprehensions in the minds of the people about safety.
The Minister pointed out that the railways organization like Research
Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) are doing meaningful
research work for developing many useful devices and methods to
ensure rail safety and the public should be made aware of the
same. He also called upon General Managers to correct the wrong
perceptions prevalent in the minds of the people about the bridges
of Indian Railways.
Chairman, Railway
Board, Shri I.I.M.S. Rana outlined the agenda of the meeting.
He asked the General Managers to be more vigilant and asked them
to supervise personally various safety measures in their respective
Railways. Shri Rana suggested a plan of action for monitoring
safety at three levels – namely grass-root level, supervisory
level as well as officers’ level.
It may be noted that
on the basis of a recommendation of high powered railway safety
review committee known as Justice Khanna Committee, the Government
created a non-lapsable Special Railway Safety Fund of Rs.17000
crores in October, 2001 to wipe out arrears of overaged assets
within a fixed time frame of six years. In the year 2001-02 and
in the current financial year, Rs.3610 crores have been allocated
to identified safety related works. These include track renewal,
signaling installation and rehabilitation of bridges and rolling
stock etc. Indian Railways has spent Rs.13000 crores during the
last five years on safety related works. Under the National Rail
Vikas Yojana announced by the Prime Minister on the Independence
Day this year, all the capacity bottlenecks in the critical sections
of the Railway network are proposed to be removed at a non-budgetary
investment of Rs.15,000 crores over the next five years.
