Indian Railways to eliminate all unmanned level crossings soon : Govt

Indian Railways to eliminate all unmanned level crossings soon : Govt

After the shocking incident, a train rammed into school van at an unmanned railway crossing in Uttar Pradesh,killed 13 students. The Railways said it will eliminate all level crossings by March 31, 2020.

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani also said no step the national carrier takes could be completely foolproof against negligence of people and urged them to be careful while crossing tracks.

“We are trying to eliminate UMLCs (unmanned level crossing) by 2020,” he said, hours after a passenger train hit the school van killing 13 children, all of them between the ages of 8-10 years on the spot. Eight others, including the driver of the van, were injured, officials said.

Also Read : Passenger train collides with school bus, 13 students Killed

Mr Lohani said till the UMLCs are eliminated, people have to be careful while crossing tracks. “There is no substitute to that. The Railways cannot take any step that is completely foolproof against negligence,” he said.

The officer also said the national transporter has been aggressively removing UMLCs – 1,565 of them were eliminated in 2017-18 and the target is of removing 1,600 in 2018-19.

He said that such elimination has resulted in the decrease of accidents at such crossings over the years – in 2014-2015, 50 such accidents took place at unmanned crossings, 29 in 2015-2016, 20 in 2016-2017, 10 in 2017-2018 and one this year.

Earlier in the day, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal ordered an inquiry into the accident and announced a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh for the kin of the deceased. The minister also said the Railways will provide an ex gratia amount of Rs. 1 lakh for those with serious injuries and Rs. 50,000 for those simple injuries.