Build subways to prevent rail accidents: Vaishnaw to officials

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday held a workshop with officials from all railway zones and directed them to work out a plan to construct subways around settlement areas to ensure people can cross tracks safely. The Railway Ministry has planned to cover all settlement areas in the vicinity of railway tracks across the country in the next five to six years, according to an official statement.

Vaishnaw asked the officials to design subways in such a way that people feel free to use them and these subways should not face waterlogging during the rainy season.

“These subways will be built near settlements where locals have to cross the tracks frequently for their day-to-day activities. The initiative has been taken to prevent accidents while crossing railway tracks,” the ministry said in the statement.

“The ministry has planned to cover all settlement areas within the vicinity of the railway track across the country in another five to six years. It will be constructed in such a way that the installations will take only 12 hours to block the rail traffic,” it added.

Officials said that in many places, there are residential areas on one side of the track and farms, schools, a crematorium and other establishments of day-to-day visit are on the other side.

“Several cases of accidents are being reported from various parts of the country every day. The subways will prevent accidents during the crossing of the tracks. These subways will prove to be a boon for a large population of the country,” an official said.

The decision to build the railway bridge is the result of several days of consultation with officials, the press note said.