New DelhI; Travel by trains is set ot be safer as railways claims to have carried out renewal of 4,405 km of old tracks with new rails in 2017-18— the highet ever in a financial years. An official statement said, "This is the highest ever progress of track renewal (primary) and exceeds the target of 4,389 km (revised to 4,400 km) for the years." The staterun transporter said that the previous best was 4,175 km in 2004-05 due to the deployment of the special rail safety fund which was set up during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime. As per railways data, during March 2018, 642 km rail renewal was carried out, which is the best ever progress in any month. The previous best were 576 km in January 2018 and 523 km in March 2006. The transporter has a network of total track length of 1,14,907 kilometrest and of this, on an average 4,500 kilo metres of track should ideally be renewed annually. But, due to financial constainst the progress of track renewals was constantly coming down in last sevderal years which resulted in huge back log of around 5,000 km track for renewal and led to se vera l accidents due to derailments. The transporter has said the government accorded the highest priority to safety in train operations, due to which a number of derailments during the period between April, 2017, and February, 2018 had come down to 53, as compared to 76 form April, 2016 to February, 2017,. Railways said that in order to liquidate the arrears of track renewal and improve safety in train operations, a Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh of Rs 1 lakh croe to be spent ove a five-year priod was announced in the budget for 201718. It stated that in view of the shortfall in supply of rails by SAIL vis-a-vis the annula requirement, a decision was taken in September, 2017 to give priority to supply of rails for track renewals, as compared to new construction projects. It was also decided to procure rails from the open market to meet the shortfail. After taking over, Piyush Goyal who had replaced Suresh Prabhu as railways minister after the Utkal Express derailment, directed that track renewal be fast-tracked. He had also asked railway officials to divert gtracks from the construction of new line3s to the accident prone areas overdue. The xones were asked to ensure the availabiltiy of traffic blocks for track maintenance, even at the cost of train operations. New Delhi: Asserting that the law enforcement agencies havfe "failed to protect the right to life, lberty and dignity" of the victims of West Bengal violence, NHRC has issued notices to the chief secrewtary, home secretary and DGP of the state asking for reports in four weeks. The federal human rights body has also asked the police chief of West Bengal to depute a team led by SSP rank officer to visit disturbed areas of Asansol and Raniganj and conduct a spot inquiry into the mattter. The Asansol Raniganj belt has witnessed clashes since March 25 between two groups over Ram Navami celebrations, resulting in the death of one person Two police officers were also injured in the clashes. NHRC, which as taken suo motu cognisance in the matter, said in a statment, ports, people , who ddialled helping 100 to seek police assistance, have stated that no police personnnel came to heldp them. The unruly mob has destroyed public and private proprties, There are many families from different communities, as mentioned in the news report, who have lost every thing in the ongoing violence"> However, reportedly, the commissioner of police of Asansol has said that the "Sitaution is under control" and loudspekaers are being used to spread awareness to scotch rumours and a large number of police personnel have been deployed in sensitive areas, NHRC. said. The commissions added, "ti is also stated in the news reports that according to many victims, the police just stood there for a while and then vanished when the crowd attacked the victimes, Apart from this, people suffering from illness and pregnant ladies are the worst victims in the affected area."