West-Central Railway Zone free of unmanned level crossings

NEW DELHI: The West-Central Railway has become the first railway zone to eliminate all unmanned level crossings from its region.

Out of total 118 unmanned level crossings falling on West-Central Railway region as on April 1, 2014, 80 were eliminated in the financial year 2014-15 and the remaining UMLC were eliminated in current financial year by August 31.

Describing it as a big "safety initiative", a senior railway official involved in the safety measure said, "This could only be achieved by constructing 33 Limited Height Sub Ways and manning of 30 level crossings."

Out of a total of 29,487 level crossings in the country, 10,046 are unmanned. While mishaps at unmanned level crossings is maximum, incidents at manned level crossings, too, are a big worry for the public transporter.

Railways has sought a special railway safety fund (SRSF) of Rs 30,000 crore from the Finance Ministry which may be utilised for removing level crossings and building rail over- bridges (ROB) and rail underbridges (RUB).

It has in the current fiscal a target of eliminating 205 manned level crossings and 820 unmanned level crossings through construction of overbridges and underbridges.