No death due to train accident in nearly 22 months: Goyal

New Delhi, Feb 12 : Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said with more focus on safety, no death has been reported due to train accidents in nearly 22 months.
Goyal made the remarks while replying to the questions raised by members on ‘New bridge maintenance protocols’ in the Rajya Sabha during the Question Hour.
The Minister said: “Over the period of time, safety has become the casualty of inadequate budgets. And very often misdirection of allocation of budget. In the last six years, we have focused more on safety.” He said: “I am happy to share with the August House that the last passenger death due to accident happened on March 22, 2019. In last nearly 22 months no passenger deaths due to train accidents.” Talking about bridges, Goyal said: “We have focused our attention on bridge repairs and maintenance.” He said that there are 34,665 bridges which are more than 100 years old, adding “we have a very robust system of inspection, once before monsoon, once after the monsoon and a rating system”.