With many states having eased lockdown, the Indian Railways is planning to operate 100 more trains in the next 5-6 days to meet the increased demand, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said on Tuesday.
At present, Indian Railways is operating 889 Special Mail Express trains every day on an average. Before the second wave, Indian Railways operated 1,500 trains daily.
"The railways is in touch with states and gradually increase train services, he said adding that the railways is keen to normalise the services at the earliest," he said.
On Covid-19 vaccination of employees, Sharma said about 6.5 lakh employees have been vaccinated. The railways has about 12 lakh employees.
About 2,600 railway employees have succumbed to Covid-19. But, the number of daily infections currently had fallen to about 100-150. In early May, the number stood at about 1,000 in a day.
Reacting to RTI-based reports that 8,733 people died on railway track between January and December 2020, when limited train services were in operation, he said these deaths were not “railway accidents” but “deaths by trespassing”.
The deaths which were mentioned in the RTI reply was due to trespassing and nothing to do with railway operational related accidents.
All 20,375 manned level crossing gates on the broad-gauge line have been eliminated in the railway network, he claimed.
Check out DH latest videos:
(Published 08 June 2021, 17:30 IST)
JOIN US