Kushinagar Tragedy: Rly On Mission Mode To Eliminate Unmanned Crossings

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The death of 13 children after a speeding train crashed into a school van at an unmanned level crossing (UMLC) at Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh had Railway Minister Piyush Goyal call a high-level meeting to discuss a mission mode plan to eliminate unmanned railway crossings across the vast railway network, in New Delhi on Thursday.

East Coast Railway (ECoR) has a few UMLCs in Sambalpur and Waltair divisions. Khurda Road Division has eliminated all such crossings. The target for closure of all UMLCs in ECoR is July 2018.

Goyal chaired a detailed meeting with CRB and Railway Board members, Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety, GMs of five railway zones and other senior officials.

In the very first meeting, after taking charge as the Railway Minister on September 4, 2017, he had directed for closing of all UMLCs in the next one year. Significant progress has been achieved in this regard with only 58 UMLCs remaining on A, B and C routes which account for more than 80% of the Indian Railways traffic, official sources said.

Indian Railways has taken several steps towards reducing accidents at UMLCs. Such accidents have come down by 79% in the last 4 years (47 accidents in 2013-14 to 10 in 2017-18).

The average rate of elimination of UMLCs has also increased by nearly two thirds over the last four years. Now, only 3,479 UMLCs remain on the Broad Gauge network.

A multi-pronged strategy is now being planned to eliminate the remaining UMLCs, which will include manning of UMLCs, construction of Railway Under Bridges (RUBs), Railway Overbridges (Railway Over Bridges) and diversion, the sources further said.

September 2018 has been set as the deadline for eliminating UMLCs in 11 zones. Targets will be set shortly for the remaining five zones, the sources added.

Goyal reiterated the aim of Safety First for Indian railways and emphasized that every life saved is worth its weight in gold.