NEW DELHI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The state-owned Indian Railways has introduced five state-of-the-art track maintenance machines in a bid to reduce train accidents across the country.
"Inducted 5 new track maintenance machines which will completely mechanize the monitoring, relaying and maintenance of tracks for the safety of commuters," Indian Railways Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted Thursday.
A senior railways official said on Friday efforts were being undertaken to bring down the number of train accidents in this country that claimed the lives of many people every day.
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.
However, train disasters are common in India as much of the colonial-era rail infrastructure is out of date.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.
In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pledged 137 billion U.S. dollars over five years to modernize and expand the railways.
