Bombay HC tells Railways to use technology to prevent incidents of sabotage on tracks

“This is a matter of lives of thousands of Mumbaikars who travel daily by suburban trains,  prevention should be better than cure,” the Bombay High Court observed on Friday while directing the Central and Western Railways to look up and install technology that would detect foreign objects kept on railway tracks.

A division bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice PR Bora, have asked the railways to consult senior official in the railways and consider use of technology to prevent any incidents of sabotage being planned, either by miscreants, terrorist or anti-social elements, by placing boulders, slabs etc on tracks. The railways have been told to place on record its decision by before the court on March 17.

The bench pressed for installing of technology because it felt that it was humanly impossible for gang of men to monitor the tracks. However, it asked the railways to increase the manpower and also take the help of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Home Guards for the same.  The question of sabotage came up after the court referred to several cases reported in the media about foreign objects being kept on tracks at different places in the country.

The court made this observation while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by activist Sameer Zaveri, highlighting the problem of accidental deaths and non-availability of emergency medical centers at railway stations. The court has also suggested the railways to put up boundary walls along the tracks wherever possible so that there is no trespassing.