The Indian Railways witnessed 11 consequential railway accidents in the first eight months of FY26, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
'It may be noted that the consequential train accidents during the period 2004-2014 were 1,711 (average 171 per annum), which have declined to 31 in 2024-2025 and further to 11 in 2025-2026 (up to November 2025),' the minister said.
According to officials in the railways ministry, safety interventions by the national transporter in the last few years have helped bring down accidents significantly.
"For context, 2020-2021, which was the year of the coronavirus pandemic, saw 22 rail accidents. During this year, rail operations were not even happening on a normal basis for a large part. In contrast, this financial year, with passenger volumes slated to be among the highest, has seen only 11 accidents so far," an official said.
According to the ministry, electrical or electronic interlocking systems with centralised operation of points and signals have been provided at 6,656 stations to reduce accidents due to human failure.
'Interlocking of level crossing (LC) gates has been provided at 10,098 level crossing gates for enhancing safety at LC gates. Complete track circuiting of stations to enhance safety by verification of track occupancy by electrical means has been provided at 6,661 stations,' it said.
The ministry has also been attempting to equip rail infrastructure and trains with Kavach, the indigenous anti-collision system.
A railway official said that after extensive and elaborate trials, Kavach Version 4.0 has been successfully commissioned on the PalwalMathuraKotaNagda section (633 route kilometres) on the DelhiMumbai route and on the HowrahBardhaman section (105 route kilometres) on the DelhiHowrah route. Kavach implementation, he added, has been taken up in the remaining sections of the DelhiMumbai and DelhiHowrah routes.
-- Business Standard