"Unusual" activities reported in train mishaps: Suresh Prabhu

NEW DELHI: Government today expressed serious concern over "unusual" activites reported in the past few days, alleging that attempts were made to sabotage rail tracks and carry out explosions.

Responding to a series of supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said there had been seven "blast attempts" and three cases of attempted sabotage.

He said the NIA is already investigating a case related to the derailment of a train near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

There have been "unsual" activities in the last few days and some incidents were averted due to the alertness of railway personnel, the Minister said during Question Hour.

He said countries including Japan, South Korea and Italy had sent their teams after the recent derailments, "thanks to the diplomatic skills of the Prime Minister."

The Railways was now in the process of putting in place latest technology like ultrasonic track detection system to find out fractures so that early warning can prevent mishaps.

Besides technology, Prabhu said the Railway Protection Force has been asked to evolve a forensic strategy.

In his written reply, the minister said train accidents have declined from 195 in 2006-07 to 135 in 2014-15 and further to 107 in 2015-16.

Number of "consequential" train accidents remained at a level of 95 during 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Accidents per million train kilometres, an important index of safety, has come down from 0.23 in 2006-07 to 0.11 in 2014-15 and further to 0.10 in 2015-16.