These numbers do not include the details of accidents, deaths and number of injured from the North East Frontier Railway Zone (NF) division, South Western Railways, Western Railway (Vadodara division) and Konkan Railway, as replies from these divisions giving details about deaths, the number of injured and cause of accidents were yet to be received. The casualty numbers also do not include the people or accidents that happened at unmanned or manned crossings, including vehicles being hit by a passing train. Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones, which are further subdivided into 70 divisions.
The cause of the death of the 658 people has been derailment, collision, fire, sabotage, bomb blast and collapse of bridge.
In the period between 2005-2016, Indian Railways witnessed at least 90 incidents of derailment of passenger and goods trains in which 376 people lost their lives and 1,053 were injured.
In the same period, 18 incidents of collisions (two moving bodies colliding with each other) were reported, in which 124 people were killed and 302 injured.
Half of the accidents had taken place due to lapses on the part of the railway staff.
As per the incomplete data provided by the North Western Railway, 62 incidents of train accidents happened between 2006-2016 in which 92 were killed and 73 injured.
No cause of action behind the accidents was shared in the reply. In the Danapur divison, 41 passengers were injured between 2005-2016; however, the cause of action for the same was not shared in the reply.
Platform collapsing on a train in Bhagalpur in 2006 had led to the loss of 36 lives; 16 were injured. Bomb blast on a moving train in May 2014 took the life of one person and led to the injury to 14 in the given time period. At least 29 were killed when a bridge was washed away in August 2015 in Madhya Pradesh.
Over 650 people (658), including passengers and drivers on moving trains, have died and almost 1,501 have suffered injuries in the period between 2005-2016. At least 90 incidents of derailment of passenger and goods trains took place in this period.
The Twelfth Report of the Standing Committee on Railways on “Safety and Security in Railways”, which was presented in Parliament last month, had stated that renewal of railway tracks—non-renewal being one of the main reasons for the derailment of trains, as revealed in the RTI reply— was not happening in the manner and speed in which it should have been done.
“The Committee had found that while ideally, 4,500 km of track should be renewed annually, currently only 2,700 km of track length has been targeted for renewal. Since it is evident that the targets kept for track renewals are not commensurate with the actual requirement on the ground, the Committee recommended that the Ministry of Railways accord highest priority to safety. The Committee also felt that physical as well as financial targets in respect of track renewals should to be enhanced as per the annual requirement for track renewals.”
The Committee had also raised concerns over the delay in switching to Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches from the present conventional coaches, as LHB coaches and fitment of tight lock Centre Buffer Couplers (CBC) prevent coaches from climbing over each other in an unfortunate event of accident.
The Committee had also expressed its grave concern over the fact that half of the accidents had taken place due to lapses on the part of the railway staff, and included careless working, poor maintenance cases, adoption of short-cuts, non-observance of laid down safety rules and procedures—something that was also confirmed by the RTI replies.