Centre to earmark highest ever allocation of for rail safety in union budget

The upcoming Union budget may earmark the highest ever allocation of over ₹1.25 trillion for rail safety in FY26, two people aware of the plan said. 

This substantive increase of over 15% may come to nearly half the railways’ annual allocation likely in the budget, one of two persons quoted above said.

A large part of this increased expenditure would go towards maintaining rolling stock and other infrastructure including track renewals to ensure that train journeys are safer, the person added.

According to the Ministry of Railways, ₹1.08 trillion has been budgeted for safety-related activities in FY25. This is a 7% increase in allocation over the previous year, when it spent ₹1.01 trillion on strengthening safety. In FY23, Railways spent ₹87,327 on safety works.

Largely for maintenance

The higher allocation will largely go towards maintenance of permanent way and works, motive power and rolling stock, machines and track renewals. This  fiscal year too, track renewal got ₹17,652 crore and rolling stock maintenance ₹31,494 crore.

As a consequence of various safety measures taken over the years, there has been a steep decline in the number of accidents, from 135 in 2014-15 to 40 in 2023-24. The causes of these accidents include track defects, locomotive and coach defects, equipment failure, and human error, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha last month.

Train accidents during 2004-14 was 1,711 (average 171 per annum), which has declined to 678 during the 2014-24 (average 68 per annum), a reduction of about 60%, he said.

Accidents per million train kilometer (APMTKM) are down from 0.11 in 2014-15 to 0.03 in 2023-24, an improvement of 73%, he said.

Expenditure on safety related projects has increased 2.5 times, from Rs. 70,273 crore in 2004-14, to Rs. 1.78 trillion during 2014-24. Track renewal expenditure has increased 2.33 times, from Rs. 47,018 crore in 2004-14 to Rs. 1.09 trillion during 2014-24.

Improvement of signalling has also been a focus area. Electronic Interlocking (Stations) has increased 3.5 times, from 837 during 2004-14 to 2,964 during 2014-24. Electronic interlocking reduces the chances of human error as signalling becomes completely automated and tamper-proof.

Still, despite the massive increase in spending, the national transporter has been unable to eradicate accidents. Close to 30 major and minor rail accidents have been reported in the current fiscal year alone. A train collision in Balasore, Odisha, in June last year was among the deadliest on record, with close to 300 deaths.

Queries sent to the ministry of Railways remained unanswered till press time.

“A lot of investment has gone into the infrastructure and for speeds up to 120 kmph (130 on selected routes) there is absolutely no problem with the infrastructure. None of the accidents in the recent times can be attributed to collapse of bridges, breaches, worn-out track, outdated Signalling, or failure of rolling stock like breakage of coupling, breakage of axle etc.

“The real problem is that modern signalling has been implemented by the vendors and is being maintained departmentally, perhaps without adequate training,” said Subodh Kumar Jain, former board member for engineering at Indian Railways.