In order to tackle the rising incidents of cattle straying on to the railway tracks and two-wheelers crossing over, the Indian Railways has designed a new metal fencing termed as the W-Beam.

It has been developed in such a way that it would also be difficult for humans to sneak and hence curb the menace of ‘reel making’ which is growing each passing day. These will be framed abreast the tracks that pass through the populated areas, railway officials said. 

“The gaps from the ground level and between the two beams have been designed in such a way in the new W-Beam metal fence that cattle or two-wheelers cannot cross it and move over to the tracks,” railway officials said.

The decision has been taken since the concrete railway boundaries have been found not be effective in preventing incidents, particularly the cattle run over.

As of now the plans are to complete fencing of the New Delhi-Howrah and New Delhi-Mumbai route to facilitate passenger train operations at a maximum speed of 160 kmph. The railways is mulling to increase the average speed of the passenger trains between 90 kmph to 110 kmph across its networks and the speed can be enhanced only after ensuring there are no animals and two-wheelers intrusion on the tracks.

The new model W-Beam type metal fencing has been developed and being installed on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route where the train speed is being augmented to 160 kmph. All zonal Railways have also been advised to adopt the new fencing model. 

Further, to make train journey safer the latest version of Automatic Train Protection system, Kavach 4.0 is being finalised to work across railway network.

While the officials claim, ever since specific safety measures have been taken, there has been a drop in accidents per day on the railway network. An average of 2.6 accidents per day was recorded during 2012-14, which has come down to 0.5 (1 accident in 2 days) during 2022-24.

The Centre is already working to secure the national highway network and work on bamboo crash barrier has been going on since last year which been named ‘Bahu Balli’. The bamboo crash barrier underwent “rigorous testing” at various Government-run institutions like the National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) in Pithampur, Indore and was rated as Class 1 during the Fire Rating Test conducted at the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) in Roorkee and it has also been accredited by the Indian Road Congress.