50,000 died on railway tracks in India from 2015 to 2017

Some 50,000 people died in India after being mowed down by trains while crossing tracks between 2015 and 2017, state-owned Indian Railways has revealed.

The Indian Railways has recently released the date in the wake of the deaths of as many as 61 people who were hit by a train in the northern state of Punjab's Amritsar city Friday while watching the celebrations of the Hindu festival of Dussehra from railway tracks.

As many as 49,790 deaths happened because people were hit by trains on tracks from 2015 to 2017, according to the railways data.

A senior official said Tuesday the Indian Railways has been time and again taking several measures to curb the deaths on railway tracks. "From imposing fine on people coming on railway tracks to putting an end to all unmanned level crossings, all steps are being taken," he added.

The Indian Railways is one of the world's largest train networks, criss-crossing the country from north to south. It operates more than 9,000 passenger trains and carries nearly 23 million passengers every day.

This vast public enterprise can be referred to as a semi-state. It runs schools, hospitals, has it own police force and construction companies, and has 1.3 million people on its payroll, making it the seventh biggest employer in the world.

However, train disasters are common in India as much of the colonial-era rail infrastructure is out of date. In 2015, the Indian government pledged 137 billion U.S. dollars over five years to modernize and expand the railways.