Railways on Zero-accident Mission

• The Railways will launch a zero-accident mission envisaging 
• renewal of tracks, 
• more railway bridges, 
• better signalling and 
• rolling out of accident-proof coaches and engines

  

  Source: The Hindu

  
  
• Why such a move?
• Train accidents, delay of trains and deterioration of service, which is seen today, all are happening because of the underinvestment in the past. The ‘zero-accident mission’ is an expensive proposition, but that is the only way to have safe travel
• Significance:
• accident rate will go down and 
• speeds will improve, 
• facilities will improve, 
• quality of service will go up and 
• revenue will increase. 
•  Customer experience will go up significantly
• Funding?
• prudential borrowing from institutions such as the LIC, the World Bank and other multilateral agencies, which would be repaid in the next 30-40 years through an increase in revenues
• increasing the transparency and efficiency of the Railways by bringing in a change in the accounting system, which was key to attracting investments.
• going from budgeting to outcomes
• a robust and forward-looking accounting system.
• Moving to commercial accounting was one of the key recommendations of the Bibek Debroy panel on railway restructuring