Railways to eliminate 50 unmanned crossings in State this year

The grisly accident at an unmanned level crossing in Medak District in Telangana, on Thursday morning, has once again raised concerns about safety at such crossings.

While Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been struggling to bring down the number, Karnataka is better placed, both in terms of total number of unmanned crossings as well as number of accidents.

As per statistics provided by Railways, in South Western Division (SWR), there are 1,270 level crossing, of which 750 are manned and 520 unmanned.

Officials said this number has been further reduced as 242 of the unmanned crossings have been eliminated.

Till April last, out of total five accidents that occurred under SWR division, two took place at unmanned crossings with one each in Mysore division and Hubli division.

The number is far less than the national average of 70 accidents annually on unmanned level crossings.

Railway officials said inquiry conducted in both these cases revealed that there were errors of judgment, as well as, negligence on the part of road users trying to cross the track when express trains were approaching.

Overall, the State has 445 unmanned level crossings spread across Karnataka.

The railways is planning to eliminate 50 of these this year and make about 100 unmanned level crossings manned ones. These also include seven unmanned crossings identified as most accident prone in SWR division.

Officials said while the Centre has asked Indian Railways to eliminate all 12,518 unmanned crossings in the country, lack of funds and alternatives is what is delaying the move.

SWR Divisional General Manager C S Gupta said railways are making efforts to eliminate unmanned crossings wherever possible with the cooperation of local authorities. 

At other places, if the crossings cannot be removed, unmanned crossings are converted into manned ones even though it involves some technicalities and certain equipment is required to be kept, for the safety of people.

Officials said unmanned crossings are eliminated or converted based on physical monitoring of unmanned level crossing for 24 hours; detailing of trains crossing in that time, multiplying the number with road vehicles crossing.

Based on this, unmanned crossings are either turned into manned ones or low height subways are constructed at the site so that light motor vehicles can pass through or diversions in the proximity of 200 to 300 meters made for road traffic.