New Delhi: In a bid to enhance safety measures and prevent unauthorised trespassing from railway tracks, the railways are identifying vulnerable points where run-overs happen repeatedly where trenches will be made and put barricades there to prevent illegal practice of crossing tracks, which often cause fatal accidents.
Describing the illegal trespassing issue, Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), said, “The railways are taking proactive measures for barricading and trenching of unauthorised trespassing locations on railway tracks as every year many lives are lost while trying to cross the railway tracks at unauthorised points.”
As a part of the drive to ensure further safety, the railways have eliminated all unmanned level crossing gates. In addition to that, NFR is also putting in efforts to prohibit unauthorised crossing of railway tracks, which can lead to fatal accidents.
“Railways identified the vulnerable locations where run-over is taking place repeatedly and has taken measures to minimise accidents. Out of a total of 950 identified unauthorised trespassing locations over the railway, 809 have already been barricaded, 235 in Tinsukia, 221 in Lumding, 88 in Rangiya, 171 in Alipurduar and 94 in Katihar,” Sharma informed.
“There are two types of trespassing, animal and human, on railway tracks. For cattle, we construct boundary walls, and fencing and dig trenches to prevent vehicles from passing from tracks. These works have been in progress at various sections," Shashikant Tripathi, Chief Public Relations Officer, North Central Railways told ETV Bharat.
Besides the trenches made near tracks, the railways have been constructing boundary walls and putting fencing along the tracks in high-speed train routes which will prevent trespassing and fatal accidents causing loss of human lives on track. The spots have been identified to build boundary walls along the tracks. The project will be done on the Delhi to Mumbai and Delhi to Kolkata routes.
South East Central Railway officials recently said to stay away from the tracks. "Avoid crossing railway tracks! Trespassing is a punishable offence under Section 147 of the Railway Act, 1989."
Giving similar views, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) Lucknow division North Eastern Railways pointed out that crossing railway tracks can be fatal. Prioritise safety by using Foot-Over Bridges, lifts and escalators.
In addition, RPF officers, along with engineers met the villagers at the NF railway zone and informed them about the legal consequences of obstructing the railway work and crossing the railway tracks. The security personnel visited and interacted with local villagers and headmen of Walingdasa and Daldali villages and convinced them to support the closure of unauthorised trespassing locations.
Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Chennai said people should follow the golden rules and avoid crossing and clicking selfies on tracks. To avoid run-over incidents on tracks, the Jhansi Division has installed W-shaped beam fencing work in the Jhansi-Kanpur Section of the division, the railways recently said.
Boosting railway safety, East Coast Railway has installed fencing along tracks near Bhubaneswar and Palasa Station, and in the Berhampur-Golanthara Section.
“The railways often dig trenches to prevent vehicles crossing through tracks, which pose danger to the life of vehicle drivers while crossing track and getting stuck on the track. The fencing work is almost done from Rewari to Ajmer route. The railways often do three types of barricading, first permanent boundary wall, second barb wire fencing and third digging trenching, to prevent human and cattle trespassing from railway tracks for the safety of people as well as train operations," Captain Shashi Kiran, Chief Public Relations Officer, North West Railways told ETV Bharat.
Fencing near tracks: The railway has been fencing and putting barricades along the tracks to provide safety for train operation as well as humans who often get stuck on tracks and get into fatal accidents while crossing the track unauthorized.
Crossing Gates: Interlocking of Level Crossing (LC) Gates has been provided at 11,053 level Crossing Gates up to October 31, for enhancing safety at LC gates.
Modern Track monitoring: Monitoring of track geometry by Oscillation Monitoring System and Track Recording Cars and web-based online monitoring system of track assets viz. A tracking database and decision support system have been adopted to decide rationalized maintenance requirements and optimize inputs.
