The Economic Survey was tabled in Parliament on Thursday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
"The category-wise break-up of consequential train accidents shows that the incident of train collisions has come down to zero in the year 2018-19 in Indian Railways and the incidents of derailment have decreased from 78 in 2016-17 to 46 in the year 2018-19," the Economic Survey said.
The Survey said that the revenue earning freight loading (excluding loading by Konkan Railways) by Indian Railways during 2017-18 was placed at 1,159.55 million tonnes, as against 1,106.15 million tonnes during 2016-17, registering an increase of 4.83 per cent, with incremental loading of 53.40 million tonnes over 2016-17.
It also highlighted that in 2018-19, Indian Railways carried 1,221.39 million tonnes of revenue earning freight showing an increase of 61.84 million tonnes over the freight traffic of 2017-18 and translating into an increase of 5.33 per cent.
"There is an increase of 2.09 per cent in the number of passengers carried by Indian Railways during 2017-18 as compared to 2016-17 and 0.64 per cent increase in 2018-19 as compared to 2017-18," it said.
Pointing out at the Railways Mission Electrification programme, the Economic Survey said the railways has initiated a major electrification programme for electrifying 100 per cent of its broad gauge network.
"This would reduce the nation's dependence on imported diesel. As on April 1, 2019, Indian Railways has 35,488 Route Kilometre (RKM) of network commissioned on electric traction which constitutes 51.85 per cent of total network and carries 64.50 per cent of freight and 53.70 per cent of coaching traffic," it said.
"The pace of electrification accelerated and a total of 38,000 RKM has been identified for electrification by 2021," it said.
The Economic Survey also pointed out that the 'Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat' mission of the railways focuses on cleanliness.
"As per the 'Swachh Rail' portal, Beas station ranked first in India in the case of cleanliness among 'A' category stations and Visakhapatnam tops the list among 'A1' category stations," it said.
The Economic Survey also said that the railways have made sincere efforts in the area of energy and water conservation and there is an increasing competition among stations to obtain a "Green Rating".
"Similarly, Indian Railway has encouraged Green Certification of Workshop and Production Units through Green Industries Certification in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry. So far 10 railway stations, 34 workshops and 4 production units have been green certified by CII," it said.
It pointed out that being a cost-effective long distance transport mode, Indian Railways has witnessed commendable progress.
"In order to provide safe, secure and comfortable journey to passengers, Indian Railways has taken numerous steps such as provision of lifts or escalators, plastic bottle crusher machines, mechanised cleaning and housekeeping etc. at major stations," the Economic Survey added.
( With inputs from IANS )