Denying that there had been a spurt in train accidents, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar told the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the number of accidents had declined in the past three years.

The number of train accidents 'have in fact come down from 473 in 2000-01, to 414 in 2001-02 and 304 provisionally during 2002-03 till January this year', he said in reply to a question.

Replying to another question, he said in between December 2002 and February 15, 2003, there have been two major accidents --- one was the derailment of the Kacheguda-Bangalore Express in which 19 persons were killed and 78 injured and the other being the collision between the Secunderabad-Manmad Express and a goods train in which 20 lost their lives and 72 injured.

In order to improve safety related works, the general managers of zonal railways have now been authorised to sanction upto Rs 50 lakh per item as compared to Rs 30 lakh earlier, Kumar said. He said several other measures were also being taken to enhance safety and maintenance standards.