The Hindu : Fastest train soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 19, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Fastest train soon

By Our Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA APRIL 18. The country's fastest passenger train developed to run 150 km per hour will be shortly introduced by the Indian Railways on the Mumbai-Madgaon-Goa route.

The proposed new train's engine and coaches are being designed at the Railway's RCF factory, Kapruthala and ``once the Ministry's Safety Commissioner gives the nod after examining the ``crash worthiness'' it will be put on the tracks, the Minister of State for Railways, Bandaru Dattatreya, told reporters here on Friday.

The bogies will be connected to each other through specially developed couplings which will not allow to the bogies to climb on top of each other in case of an accident. The Minister pointed out that in most accidents the casualties were always higher whenever, the bogies climbed on to the other. The new train being developed with German technology will prevent such a situation and reduce casualties in the unfortunate event of a mishap.

Mr. Dattatreya said the government has decided to accord top priority for passenger safety and several new measures were being taken to achieve the purpose.

Rs. 17,000 crores has been allocated towards passenger safety measures for the period of 2001-2006 out of which the Railway's contribution is Rs. 5000 crores while the rest is being contributed by the State Governments. Of these already an amount of Rs 6,055 has been spent and the remaining Rs. 10,945 crores would be spent in the next three years.

In order to provide safety to the passengers, the Ministry, he said has decided to take up various measures like replacement, carry out repairs, of the 1.2 lakh bridges in the country and improving the track conditions. Out of the 1.2 lakh bridges, 51,340 are 100 years old, but most of them continued to be in good conditions. The Minister however, asserted that the worthiness of the bridge could not be judged by their mere age.

He said that by the end of the year the Railways had decided to open 50 food plazas in the railway stations at Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Vishakapatnam and Tirupati, to provide quality and economically-priced food to the passengers.

Pat for the CBI

Mr. Dattatreya congratulated the CBI and the Andhra Pradesh Police for nabbing the alleged killers of the former Gujarat Home Minister, Haren Pandya.

He said the arrest indicated the extent to which the ISI has spread its tentacles in the country and appealed to the political parties to join hands with the government in curbing the activities of the Pakistan-based organisation. He said the political parties, including the MIM, should understand that the ISI activities posed a serious threat to the country's internal security.

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