The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) has been created in the form of a Reserve Fund. The fund will receive a corpus of Rs1 lakh crore over a period of 5 years starting from 2017-18. Details of funds allocated under Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) during the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 (Prov) and 2019-20 (BE) are shown in the following table:

     (Rs in cr.)

 

Minor-Head wise details of utilization of funds under RRSK in 2018-19 are shown below:

           (Rs in cr.)

Safety is accorded the highest priority by Indian Railways and all possible steps are undertaken on a continuous basis to prevent accidents and to enhance safety. These include timely replacement of over-aged assets, adoption of suitable technologies for upgradation and maintenance of track, rolling stock, signalling and interlocking systems, safety drives, greater emphasis on training of officials and safety inspections at regular intervals to monitor and educate staff for observance of safe practices. Preventive and predictive maintenance of the Railway assets is undertaken to ensure safe train operation. Safety devices/systems being used to prevent accidents include Electronic Interlocking, track circuiting, provision of Block Proving Axle Counters, Colour Light LED Signals, Train Protection and Warning System, Vigilance Control Device, Fog Pass Device, usage of 52 kg/60 kg, 90 or higher UTS rails and pre-stressed Concrete Sleepers, use of Ultrasonic Flaw Detection of rails and welds at predefined periodicity to detect internal flaws in rails/welds. Electronic monitoring of track geometry is carried out to detect defects and plan maintenance. Steel Channel Sleepers on girder bridges are being used while carrying out primary track renewals. Further, it has been decided to lay Thick webs switches, Weldable Cast Maganese Steel crossings on identified routes. Progressive use of Linke Hofmann Busch Coaches, use of Centre Buffer Couplers with Integral Coach Factory Coaches, etc. Railway tracks are replaced on age-cum-condition basis through track renewal works which is an ongoing process. Other measures include training of loco pilots and other safety category staff, improvement of their working conditions including proper rest and periodic medical examination etc. Besides, patrolling of tracks, footplate inspections and safety reviews at various levels, etc. are regularly conducted to continuously monitor and improve safety aspects of the Indian Railways. Due to these efforts, the number of consequential train accidents have reduced from 135 in 2014-15 to 59 in 2018-19. 

This information was given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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