No unmanned crossings by ’20: Govt
NEW DELHI: Indian Railways will either man or remove thousands of unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) across the country within two years, its top official said on Thursday after 13 children were killed when their school van collided with a train at one such crossing in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district.
“Our special focus has been on level crossings. In unmanned rail crossings, the responsibility is of road users. But because it happens on our premises, we are concerned about it. We are working actively to eliminate unmanned level crossings and will completely eliminate them by March 31, 2020,” railway board chairman Ashwani Lohani said.
Lohani said corridors where high speed and suburban trains run have been prioritised and unmanned crossings on these routes will be removed by June this year. “The task to eliminate UMLCs is huge as there are 3,479 such crossings on broad gauge; 40% of these will be converted into manned crossings while at other places, road over bridges or road under bridges will be constructed,” Lohani said.
He pointed out that, working
similarly, Indian Railways eliminated 1,565 crossings in 2017-18. “After March 31, 2020, about 400 crossings where one or two trains pass in a day will be left which we will cover later,” Lohani added.
Railway minister Piyush Goyal had said in September last year that all the UMLCs would be removed within a year.
On Thursday, Goyal chaired a meeting following the accident in
Kushinagar. “A multi-pronged strategy is now planned to eliminate the remaining UMLCs, which will include manning of UMLCs, construction of Railway Under Bridges (RUBs), Railway Over Bridges, diversion, etc. This will be done through simultaneous execution of work on track sections. Progress of elimination of UMLCs will also be shared transparently online through a website to increase accountability and public monitoring. Target for eliminating UMLCs in 11 zones will be September 2018...” read a press note from the minister’s office after the meeting.
Lohani, who was brought in to helm the world’s fourth-largest rail network in August year last after a spate of accidents led to a top-level shake-up, said the number of train accidents has come down from 135 in 2014-15 to 73 in 2017-18. There were 50 accidents on unmanned level crossings in 2014-15, 29 in 2015-16, 20 in 2016-17 and 10 in 2017-18.
“At 2,514 crossings, gate mitras have been deployed in single shifts while at 1,869 locations, they have been deployed in double shifts,” Lohani added.
His reference is to people hired from local villages and posted at all unmanned crossings to warn others about incoming trains before they cross the tracks.
The driver of the van involved in Thursday’s accident, who eyewitnesses said had his earphones on, allegedly ignored the repeated warnings of the ‘Gate Mitra’. “The train driver too blew the whistle in warning but he (the van driver) ignored it, leading to the accident,” the spokesperson of North Eastern Railway Sanjay Yadav said.