While the incidents of train collisions came down to zero and those of derailments declined to 46 during last year, occurrence of fire in trains went up to six, according to data provided in the Economic Survey 2018-19.
The category-wise break-up of consequential train accidents shows that the incident of collisions has come down to zero in 2018-19 from three in 2017-18, while those of derailment declined to 46 from 54 in the previous year. However, incidents related to fire in trains increased to six in the year 2018-19 as against three in 2017-18, the survey said.
The total number of train accidents came down from 104 in 2016-17 and 73 in 2017-18 to 59 in 2018-19.
Additionally, the survey said that in 2018-19, Indian Railways carried 1221.39 million tonnes of revenue earning freight, an increase of 61.84 million tonnes or 5.33% over 2017-18.
The revenue earning freight loading by Indian Railways during 2017-18 was placed at 1159.55 million tonnes as against 1106.15 million tonnes during 2016-17, up 4.83%.
“There is an increase of 2.09% in the number of passengers carried by railways during 2017-18 as compared to 2016-17 and 0.64% increase in 2018-19 as compared to 2017-18,” the survey said.
