NEW DELHI, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The state-owned Indian Railways has for the first time launched a bridge management system to keep track of its 150,000 bridges across the country.
Indian Railway Minister Piyush Goyal launched the system in the Indian capital Thursday.
"The system is a unique IT application that will store data on all railway bridges in India. It will ultimately help the Indian Railways in the upkeep of these bridges, some of which are colonial-era and need attention," a senior official said Friday.
The launch of the system came in the aftermath of a recent bridge collapse due to heavy rains in India's financial capital Mumbai. The Indian Railways has already ordered safety audit of all its bridges in Mumbai.
The Indian Railways is one of the world's largest train networks, criss-crossing the country from north to south. It operates some 9,000 passenger trains and carries nearly 23 million passengers every day.
But train disasters are quite common in India as much of the colonial-era rail infrastructure is out of date. A number of people are killed in train accidents, mostly derailments, across the country every year.
