Railways safer than ever before

Indians are safer on the railways than ever before, thanks to the well-thought-out initiatives of the past decade that have delivered significant results.

- A K KHANDELWAL

This is particularly commendable given that no country transports more people by rail than India, which records over 1 lakh crore Passenger Kilometres (PKM) and around 685 crore passengers annually.

The feat is unparalleled even by our neighbour China, which transports roughly half as many passengers (around 300 crore annually) despite its more extensive rail network and a comparable population size.

The remarkable improvements in safety are evidenced by a steep fall in the number of consequential train accidents—a key metric to identify serious incidents—declining from 473 in 2000-01 to just 40 in 2023-24. This progress is through focused efforts to improve tracks, eliminate unmanned level crossings, regularly monitor health of bridges, and digitise stations, among others.

These achievements become even more impressive when considering the number of passengers and the track length involved. On an average day, over 2 crore people travel across an expansive 70,000 Route Kilometre (RKM)—long network. This number reaches 3 crore per day in peak season, creating yet another world record.

This effectively means that India safely transports nearly 2 per cent of its population on railways each day, compared to only 0.58 per cent in China and 0.09 per cent in the United States.