Funds available, will invest Rs 73,000 crore to ensure rail safety: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday announced plans to invest a sum of Rs 73,000 crore towards resolving safety-related problems faced by commuters.

Addressing an India Infracon event organised by Asian News International (ANI) in New Delhi, Goyal said a change in mindset is crucially required to implement large-scale projects across the country.

"The best excuse has been lack of funds. We were used to taking long years to implement projects, using age-old technology. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed the mindset from a shortage of funds to availability of funds for every good idea. In order to ensure safety in railways, we plan to invest about Rs 73,000 crore in safety-related issues next year," the minister said.

Given the rising volume of rail accidents, including head-on collisions that have taken place in the recent past, Goyal called for the installation of a more robust signalling structure, particularly during the winter when travel is often affected by fog and pollution.

"In 30 seconds, we decided that Indian Railways and the people of India deserve the world's most modern signalling system, which will be implemented in next six to seven years. For this, identification of bottlenecks is necessary. There is a need to modernise signalling, and improving line capacity," said the minister.

Goyal said that modernising of Railways would not only address rail safety, but also punctuality, which has been flagged as a key area of concern by travellers.