Ten-year plan targets reducing accidents by two-thirds
Railway Minister Nitish Kumar today presented in Parliament the ten-year corporate safety plan for 2003-13. The decadal plan has an objective of reducing the overall consequential train accidents per million train kilometres from 0.44 in 2002-03 to 0.17 in 2012-13
The plan, aimed at achieving higher level of safety in train operations, involves a total outlay of Rs 31,385 crore which will come from the Special Railway Safety Fund (Rs 13,103 crore), the Railway Safety Fund (Rs 8,911 crore), the Capital Fund (Rs 4,205 crore), the Development Fund (Rs 4,661 crore) and the Depreciation Reserve Fund (Rs 955 crore).
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Kumar said concerted effort would be made for development of manpower and improvement of working condition for railway staff at lower level to reduce fatalities due to human error by as much as 40 per cent. A safety related retirement scheme has also been announced for gangmen and drivers in the age group of 50 to 57 years.
Kumar said the endeavour was to minimise fatalities in accidents and the plan objectives could be treated as an intermediate stage in the effort to set up an accident-free and casuality-free railway system.
The railway safety plan also envisages stepping up of non-Budgetary initiatives to meet additional requirements for money. Kumar said a special safety scheme might be resorted to with the assistance of the Planning Commission and the ministry of finance.
The plan has incorporated Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee