Insurance Cover For Railway Passengers

An Optional Travel Insurance Scheme on a pilot basis for one year has been launched w.e.f 01/09/2016 for the railway passengers who book e-ticket through official website of Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Under the scheme reserved passengers who expire or are disabled permanently or partially due to train accident and untoward incidents during train journey will be entitled to sum assured as per the details given below. The objective behind the scheme is to maximize compensation to the passengers for the loss caused to them by train accident and untoward incidents.

IRCTC which is a wholly owned undertaking of Ministry of Railways has entered into an agreement with three Insurance Companies through Limited Tender, namely

(i) Shriram General Insurance Company Ltd.,

(ii) ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd., &

(iii) Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co. Ltd.

The amount of compensation to be given to passengers are as follows

(i) In case of Death- ₹ 10 lakh

(ii) Permanent Total Disability – ₹ 10 Lakh

(iii) Permanent Partial Disability – ₹ 7.5 Lakh

(iv) Hospitalization Expenses for Injury – ₹ 2 Lakh &

(v) Transportation of mortal remains – ₹ 10 Thousand.

The insurance cover will cover all reserved classes (SL, 1AC, 2AC, 3AC) and trains except passenger trains & Sub-Urban trains for tickets booked online on the IRCTC website. Personal belongings are not covered under the said scheme.

This Press Release is based on the information given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 16 November 2016, Wednesday.a

Railway Projects With State Governments

As on 01.04.2016, 41 nos. of railway projects covering a length of about 5650 Km have been taken up on cost sharing basis with State Governments. The latest cost of these projects is ` 60,850 Crore and an outlay of ` 4,317 Crore has been provided in Rail Budget 2016-17 for these projects. All cost sharing projects are progressing as per availability of resources. Every railway project requires a number of clearances from various Ministries and Departments of State/Central Governments. These, inter-alia, include clearances inherent to land acquisition, forestry clearance and permission for crossing from departments like National Highway Authority of India, Public Works Department, Irrigation canals etc; and also clearances of Archeological Survey of India if the alignment passes in vicinity of a protected monument, local bodies for projects passing through urban areas, etc which are part of project execution. Process of seeking the approvals/clearances and the time taken therein is inherent to project execution time. Delays therein cause delay in completion of the entire project.

However, it is Railway's’ endeavour to complete the ongoing projects expeditiously.

Since Railway projects straddle over more than one State, projects are not sanctioned State-wise. However, during the last three years i.e. 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, & current financial year i.e. 2016-17, 5305 Kms of new lines have been included in Railway Budget.

Railways have a large throw forward of ongoing projects vis-à-vis availability of budget from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS). To overcome this financial crunch, Ministry of Railways has approached State Governments to form Joint Venture Companies (JVCs) jointly with Ministry of Railways to undertake mutually identified rail infrastructure projects for project development, resources mobilization and monitoring. Some other steps taken/being taken by the Government for effective and speedy implementation of rail projects in the country are (i) substantial increase in allocation of funds, (ii) prioritization of projects, (iii) delegation of powers at field level, (iv) regular coordination meetings with State Governments for land acquisition, relocation of utilities, etc.

This Press Release is based on the information given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 16 November 2016, Wednesday.

Steps Taken To Increase The Speed of Trains

The following steps have been initiated for increasing the speed of the trains:

Gatiman Express at 160 kmph (kilometre per hour) has been introduced on 05.04.2016 from Hazrat Nizamuddin to Agra Cantt.

Feasibility study of Chennai – Bengaluru – Mysore Corridor for raising the speed of passenger trains to 160 kilometre per hour at their cost has been entrusted to China Railway.

Feasibility – cum - implementation study of New Delhi – Chandigarh Corridor for raising the speed of passenger trains to 200 kmph on 50:50 percent cost sharing basis has been entrusted to French Railway.

A protocol has been signed with Russian Railways on 15th October, 2016 for feasibility-cum-implementation study of Nagpur–Secunderabad Corridor for raising the speed of passenger trains to 200 kmph.

Mission Raftar has been announced in the Railway Budget 2016-17. The mission envisages the target of doubling of average speed of freight trains and increasing the average speed of all passenger trains by 25 kmph in the next five years. A cross functional mission directorate has been created in Railway Board for this purpose.

This Press Release is based on the information given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 16 November 2016, Wednesday.