Railway mishaps drop to 11 this year: Vaishnaw

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday told the Rajya Sabha that India had touched its “highest ever benchmark of rail safety”, with consequential train accidents falling from an annual average of 171 between 2004 and 2014 to just 11 in 2025-26 (so far).

According to the figures placed before Parliament, consequential train accidents have reduced from 135 in 2014-15 to 31 in 2024-25 and 11 till November this year.

The minister attributed this decline to a decade of aggressive modernisation, including electronic interlocking at 6,656 stations, interlocked gates at 10,098 level crossings and complete track-circuiting at 6,661 stations.

“It is backed by a multi-fold rise in safety spending, massive technological upgrades, faster investigations into sabotage attempts and closer coordination with state police and central agencies,” Vaishnaw said, in a detailed reply.

The minister said the safety budget had nearly tripled over the past decade, from Rs 39,463 crore in 2013–14 to Rs 1,16,470 crore in the current fiscal, enabling Indian Railways to overhaul ageing assets, ramp up surveillance and strengthen frontline infrastructure. He highlighted that fog safety devices had surged “288 times”, from just 90 in 2014 to 25,939 in 2025.

“Centralised electronic interlocking and complete track-circuiting have also been commissioned at 21 stations each in the last four months,” he said.

Vaishnaw told the House that passenger safety was the government’s top priority and that every unusual incident was investigated thoroughly.

He said, “Technical reasons behind mishaps are examined by the Railways, while cases with suspicion of criminal activity are handed to state police, in line with the constitutional provisions. If required, the CBI and NIA join the probe.”

“All sabotage or track-tampering cases reported in 2023 and 2024 were registered by the state police and the Government Railway Police, leading to arrests and prosecution,” he said.

To prevent such incidents, the minister outlined a coordinated security plan involving the RPF, GRP and the civil police. “Black spots and vulnerable stretches are patrolled jointly; special teams monitor high-risk areas; and regular drives are held to remove materials placed near tracks. Besides, locals living alongside tracks are being sensitised about the dangers of placing foreign objects on rail lines,” he added.

Vaishnaw said state-level security committee meetings, headed by state police chiefs, were also reviewing intelligence, law and order issues and sabotage threats more frequently.

He said the upgrade of the anti-collision system Kavach had also accelerated after version 4.0 was cleared by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in July 2024. It was successfully commissioned on key stretches of the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes, and work was underway on all remaining Golden quadrilateral, diagonal and high-density routes, covering 15,512 route-km.

The minister further said the Railways had introduced multiple standardised protocols, stricter inspections and long-term rolling block maintenance to ensure safer operations.

These advances, supported by better intelligence, mechanisation, longer rails, improved welding, vigilance systems and modern monitoring tools, had collectively contributed to the rail network recording one of its safest years ever, he said.