M A I N   N E W S

Frontier Mail probe report soon: Nitish

Chennai, June 1
The Railways Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, has said that the inquiry into the May 15 Frontier Mail fire mishap in Punjab, which claimed 38 lives, was still on and a primary report on the probe would be released very soon.

Talking to newspersons at the airport here last night, on his arrival here en route to Virudhunagar for inaugurating a new broad gauge line to Rajapalayam today, he said the Forensic Sciences Department was also investigating the mishap.

“Only if the report is made available we can say anything substantial,” he added.

Mr Kumar dismissed as baseless the Tamil Nadu Transport Minister’s charge at a recent railway function that enough funds were not allocated for expediting the pending railway projects in the state.

“The ministry has a fixed formula based on which funds are allotted to various railway projects all over the country. The funds allocation for Tamil Nadu has increased manifold,” he said.

Asked about the recent spurt in train accidents, Mr Kumar said the ministry had been taking a lot of safety measures.

“We have a long way to go in improving safety measures”, he said and maintained that when compared to other railways in the world, the safety measures were much better in the Indian Railways.

The number of rail accidents and derailments had come down when compared to the previous figures, the minister said. UNI