Vishwas Dass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 20: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has been counting on a fair share of funds during next week’s tabling of railway budget towards unmanned level crossings (ULCs) in the state.
The ULCs have literally become death traps in the state because of rise in accidents and neglect on the part of the railways and passersby who often violate traffic rules while crossing tracks at unmanned crossings.
The ECoR has 1,151 level crossings – 570 unmanned and 581 manned – across Orissa and partially in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Khurda Road division has 128 unmanned and 282 manned crossings while Sambalpur division has 211 ULCs and 147 manned.
An official document showed Khurda Road division has paid a compensation of Rs 34.44 lakh for 25 mishaps at unmanned crossings while Waltair division has disbursed Rs 2.23 lakh between 2004 and 2014.
However, ECoR has claimed 156 ULCs were manned in the last three years against the plan of closing 570 unmanned crossings to ensure no untoward incident takes place.
In the current fiscal, ECoR has set a target of closing 20 ULCs and build 30 limited height subways (LHS). However, seven crossings have got LHS till January 31, 2015. In the next fiscal, 40 LHS will be built by the ECoR while 100 will be closed and 66 manned.
Every year dozens of people die in mishaps at ULCs mostly when light and heavy vehicles collide with running trains.
The gruesome deaths of 14 farmers at an ULC in Sambalpur when a Sambalpur-Rourkela train hit an auto-rickshaw had prompted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to shoot off a letter to the ministry of railways August 26, 2012, urging it to expedite manning of ULCs.
However, ultimately, the railways will have to pump in the required money and take the matter more seriously to bring down fatal accidents and ensure passengers’ safety.
