Modi asks for multi-pronged approach to resolve problem
Concerned over the rising instances of accidents at unmanned Railway crossings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested the Railways to make available online the details of such crossings across the country.
Modi in a high level meeting with the Railway officials last month desired to know about the bottleneck areas, delays and reasons involved in unmanned crossings.
While the Railway officials conveyed that multiplicity of authorities led to inordinate delays even if there are funds available, Modi asked for a multi-pronged approach to solve the problem and suggested to decentralise sanctioning powers if online design standardisation are in single window.
At present, Indian Railways has 30,348 level crossings, out of which 11,563 are unmanned and, according to proposals, all would be manned by 2016.
The discussions followed the recent death of school children in school bus-train collision in Telangana at an unmanned level Railway crossing, investigations into which later revealed that a road under bridge (RUB) could not be made due to involvement of several agencies resulting in deadlock for years.
In the latest casualties, at least 22 people — 20 in Bihar on Monday and two near lucknow last Thursday — have lost their lives in the last one week at unmanned Railway crossings.
Chairman Railway Board Arunendra Kumar confirmed that the Prime Minister forwarded several suggestions for the Railway infrastructure including the idea of putting online the details of unmanned level crossings and that the Railways have started working on those ideas.
The Ministry of Railways has asked the Research Designs and Standard Organisation (RDSO) and Centre for Railway Informatics Systems (CRIS) to conceive design of such proposal moved by Modi. A top Railway official told The Pioneer that the PM wanted that minutest details should be available so that related agencies can coordinate faster and help in making the Railway crossings safer.
lack of coordination among different departments has jeopardised the lives of both road and train users and such accidents are on rise, he reportedly remarked.
“The details would be available online on any of our Railway portals. Anybody can look into the details and current information about the unmanned level crossing. Besides for the administrative purpose, it will be also linked with the real train running time which will provide information about the timing of crossing of an express train on that level crossing. This may be for both the manned as well as unmanned so that people can also time their routine rather than wait at the crossings,” said a railway official.
According to International Unmanned level Crossing Awareness Week in June this year, 40 per cent of consequential train accidents are due to unmanned level crossings and out of which 66 per cent are fatal. Most of the accidents occur due to the negligence of road users and cause embarrassment to the Railways.