Divisional Railway Manager Shubhranshu on Wednesday flagged off the electrical safety rath to create awareness on high voltage electrical installations of railways.
The propaganda van will travel for three days to all areas of Salem Division, including railway stations, level crossings, schools, and market places and distribute handkerchiefs, pamphlets, and pocket calendars with safety slogans in Tamil and English. Awareness messages will also be announced via public address system. The campaign plans to cover a minimum of 50,000 people.
During the campaign period, railway staff, particularly the loco pilots would be educated on the risk of passing the signal when in danger.
Addressing presspersons on the occasion, Mr. Shubhranshu stated that by way of conducting such awareness programmes, there was no loss of lives due to electrocution in Salem Division controlled area in 2015.
He further stated that of the 70 unmanned level crossings in Salem Division, plans were on to close 20 this year.
By the end of 2017, he expressed the hope that all the unmanned level crossings in Salem Division would have been eliminated by way of manning, construction of limited use subways, road over bridges and diversion to nearby road.
He sought the cooperation of the public in not crossing the railway tracks other than the designated locations and by not going near the high voltage electrical installations.
