Chennai:
If your train is delayed or there is a maintenance issue pertaining to tracks the blame squarely lies in Indian Railways which in the last 18 years have been increasing the number of trains but hardly focusing on improving the infrastructure to cater to the increase in trains.
This was revealed to reporters during a Press Meet addressed by Union Railway Minister Piyush Goel to highlight the achievements and initiatives of ministries of railways and coal in the four years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and to mark the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
To queries on the punctuality of trains and backlog in maintenance, railway officials who accompanied the minister said that the issue has been lack of sufficient funds to improve infrastructure and increase in trains for the last 18 years as a result maintenance has been hit.
Ruling out privatization of Indian Railways, Goel told reporters that the focus is on public private partnership for rail infrastructure projects.
The minister said that priority has been given to rail safety and there has been 62 per cent reduction in train accidents in the last four years. As per figures released there were 118 rail accidents in 2013-14 and it has been reduced to 73 by 2017-18. He said safety will be improved further wsith CCTV cameras to be installed in every stations and plans are also on to have it in train coaches.
Goel, who was addressing reporters from 12 cities simultaneously, said Indian Railways is getting future ready and the maintenance works, which are being carried out has resulted in delay but in the long term, this would enable faster and safer train movement.
Hitting out at the non-usage of the Railway Security Fund which was commissioned during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Goel said it was not considered for the last 10 years affecting the maintenance works.
He also said that land acquisition issues pertaining to Bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will be resolved soon as there has always been issues linked to development projects but the project is on track.
On the increasing cost of diesel and its impact on the railways, Goel said it is with this aim that the Railways is heading towards fast electrification. Goel also said that the government has saved around Rs 11, 000 to Rs 13, 000 crore through electrification, adding that 4,087 km of electrification has been done in 2017-18 alone.
To a query on public offers of railway public sector units, Goel said the RITES IPO is under way, as are that of Ircon International and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited. On IRCTC, he said he has intervened and stopped the public offer, as the public sector united has huge database and requires better valuation.
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