Railway tracks throughout the country are kept vacant for a few hours every day for maintenance keeping in mind the safety of train travel, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Vaishnaw said maintenance of railways is different from other infrastructure like highways. He said since the tracks and wheels are made of steel and the trains are travelling at a speed of 70 to 100 km per hour, the tracks often get damaged, resulting in creation of micro fractures
“If we don’t repair the micro fractures regularly, there is a possibility of increased rail fractures which may lead to train accidents. That is why globally, out of 24 hours in a day, a few hours are kept for maintaining the tracks,”
he said.
The minister said taking into accounts all these aspects, a “tough decision” had been taken in 2018 that in every section, the railway tracks would be kept vacant for at least three hours for maintenance. “This was the reason why some train stoppages were done away and some trains are being regulated.
This has nothing to do with the Covid pandemic,” he said replying to a question that some stoppages were done away due to the pandemic. Vaishnaw said the decision was taken after IIT Bombay carried out a detailed study and the time table was made in a way that three hours are kept for maintenance. “Its result has also come.It was a good result. Once there were 2,500 rail fractures which has come down to less than 250 now due to proper maintenance of the tracks,” he said
without specifying the time period.
The minister also informed the house the fares of various trains and their classes are based on the facilities provided in them and various types of train services are offered for different types of passenger segments. He said this in a written reply to questions in Lok Sabha regarding the high fares of Vande Bharat trains.
Rakibul Hussain, a Congress member from Dhubri in Assam, wanted to know whether the government has considered reducing the fares of the Vande Bharat Express to make this premium train service more affordable for a larger section of the population, particularly for the lower-income groups. Responding to the question, Vaishnaw said the Indian Railways fixes the fares with due consideration of the cost of service, the value of service, expenses the passengers can bear, competition from other competing modes, socio-economic considerations and the likes.
According to the railway minister, Amrit Bharat trains have modern state-of-the-art technology, equipped with advanced features like semi-permanent couplers for jerk-free travel, horizontal sliding windows and mobile holders.
