‘Rlys to accelerate work on unmanned level crossings’
Hundred unmanned level crossings, including the one in Bhadohi where an accident took place killing 8 children on Monday, will be manned in the next couple of months. Railway authorities in Varanasi division of the north eastern railway (NER) have decided to accelerate the work underway.
“Target for manning 100 unmanned level crossings has been fixed for the current year. The process of it is on and it will be further accelerated. All the unmanned crossings will be manned and gates will be constructed as per the requirement,” public relation officer, NER, Ashok Kumar said.
According to the sources in railways, 394 out of total 872 crossings in the division are unmanned.
Meanwhile, unmanned level crossings continue to be a threat to road users as railways is yet to man over 300 unmanned level crossings in both the NR and the NER falling under its Lucknow division.
Although conversion of unmanned level crossings is on, officials say covering the vast network is a time taking process. As per the railways’ record, the Lucknow division altogether has 366 unmanned level crossings. They include 297 unmanned level crossings of the NER and 77 of the NR.
“Total 18 unmanned crossings witnessed the conversion exercise in the current financial year,” an NER official said.
Under the exercise that was carried out soon after the railway budget, the official said 10 crossings got limited high subway (LHS). Seven crossings were closed directly while the diversion was made at one crossing.
“In the budget, the amount of Rs 142,720,000 was issued in two parts to transform the unmanned crossings,” the official said.
In the previous financial year, the amount of Rs 139,735,000 was issued for the purpose.
“Our target is to convert all the unmanned crossing by 2019. Our division used to have one of the maximum numbers of the unmanned level crossings. However, over the year, we have reduced the numbers to around 300,” said Sanjay Yadav, chief public relation officer (CPRO), NER.