Ringing alarm bells, the Railway Ministry on Wednesday said that it reported 45 cases of attempted sabotage and tampering of railway tracks last year. The Ministry's claims come amid increase in train accidents, one of which is even said to be a sabotage carried out by Pakistan's ISI through Bihar-based Indian operatives.
In a hurriedly-convened Press conference, Railway Board Member Mohd Jamshed said that of the 45 cases -- 18 of them were extremist activities in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and other states. "In 13 cases, IEDs were recovered by the side of the tracks, 7 cases were of explosion and three cases were of tampering of equipments like removal of fishplates etc reported," Jamshed said.
He said there has been an increase in derailments this year. "An investigation is done by zonal, divisional and commissioner railway safety (CRS) to assess the cause of an accident," Jamshed said at the Press briefing which he had to address at the Delhi Division DRM office since Rail Bhawan premises was sealed in view of Republic Day security.
Hinting at the possibility of sabotage in the recent spate of train derailments, Jamshed said intensive safety campaigns have been launched with inputs of teams from Japan and Korea to stop such incidents.
The Railway Board said that railways has lost 7 million tonnes of freight of Rs 700 crore due to unusual incidents including security threats and rail disruptions by various groups among others.
"In passenger segment, Rs 100 crore was lost on account of the loss of punctuality of 3500 mail/express trains due to such incidents between April 1, 2016-January 24, 2017," he added. Railways have issued series of directions to all zones for observing safety.
"We are putting our best efforts to improve the wheel-rail interaction which is important in cases of derailment," the Railway Board Member said, adding derailments happen due to various reasons including rail fractures and because of issues related to rolling stock and track maintenance.
"As far as safety funds are concerned, safety funds have been provided adequately and this should not be confused with investments," he added.