The Union minister of railways, Lalu Prasad, said that in the last five years there has been a significant improvement in railway safety and a steep reduction in the number of railway accidents.

Presenting the Interim Railway Budget 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha on Friday, he informed that the number of consequential accidents came down to 194 in 2007-08, as against 325 in 2003-04.

The railway minister said that this declining trend is continuing in the current year (2008-09) also as the number of consequential train accidents during April-November has decreased to 117 as compared to 138 during the corresponding period in the previous year.

Also see: Passenger fares down 2%; freight unchanged