Even as the Balasore train accident has brought back focus on increased spending to ensure safety related budget of the government for past nine year shows that the national transporter has been consistently upgrading its operations with technologies that significantly lowers the chances of any accidents.
In the nine-year period, Indian Railways spent a staggering Rs. 178,012 crore on rail safety (including budget estimate for FY24) at an average annual spend of Rs. 17,801 crore. This is 2.5 times the safety spend of Railways prior to 2014 when between 2004-205 and 2013-14, about Rs. 70,000 crore was spent of rail safety at an annual expense of Rs. 7,027 crore.
As quality of track is one of the main reasons for train accidents and derailments, the Railways has given special focus to this work. Accordingly, it spent more than double levels between 2014-15 and 2022-23 of Rs. 10,201 crore annually on track renewals against Rs. 4,702 crore better FY05 and FY14.
