The issue of railway rail damage canâ€Ÿt be seen easily and it requires attention and researchingrnbecause most railway accidents are caused by the wheel/rail damage. The aim of this paper isrnto develop an effective inspection and maintenance strategy based on rolling contact surfacesrncrack propagation analyse. This will help to prevent the occurrence of rail failure by takingrnthe required action at the right time, and extend the rail life expectancy, reduce the railrnmaintenance work and its cost. rnThe frequency of rail inspection tends to vary from one railroad to another, yet it is usuallyrnbased on either time or traffic tonnage. Railroad companies have evolved their rail inspectionrnschedules empirically based on long field experience. Rail defect management refers to therndevelopment and implementation of strategies to control the risk of rail failure. The primaryrnmethod to control the risk is a rail inspection through non-destructive evaluation and, is arnreplacement of rails based on the remedial action plan. rnThis work has undertaken the study of fatigue cracks in rails using Finite element methodrn(FEM) modelling and analytical solutions to provide rail inspectors for the quick assessmentrnof the severity of surface breaking and embedded cracks in rails. The work does investigaterncrack propagation phenomena on the heads of rails. rnBased on the analysis results, the mechanism for remedial action is developed based onrncritical crack size at rail head, to help infrastructure managerâ€Ÿs decision. Then, effectivernnumber of rail inspection frequency is determined as three times a year to prevent thernoccurrence of rail failure by taking the required action at the right time, and extend the railrnlife expectancy, reduce the rail maintenance work and its cost. Finally, appropriate railrninspection and maintenance strategy model (flowchart) is adopted for Ethiopian railwayrnindustry.