Title - Parliament Question: Railways to Eliminate all Unmanned Level Crossings

New Delhi: Minister of State for Railways Shri Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today had mentioned that there will be a systematic elimination of all Unmanned Level Crossings on Indian Railways in a phased manner shortly.  While replying, he also elaborated that it has emerged from the analysis of pattern of accidents that manning of unmanned level crossings is not an ideal solution.  Therefore, the policy of manning of unmanned level crossings has been reviewed and Ministry of Railways has decided to progressively eliminate all unmanned level crossings by:

(i)    Closure – Closing unmanned level crossings having NIL/negligible Train Vehicle Unit (TVU).

(ii)   Merger – Merger of unmanned level crossing gate to nearby manned or unmanned gates or subway or Road Under Bridge (RUB) or Road Over Bridge (ROB) by construction of diversion road.

(iii)  Provision of Subways/RUBs.

(iv)  Manning – The unmanned level crossings which cannot be eliminated by above means, will be progressively manned based on rail-road traffic volume, visibility conditions.  Elimination of all these level crossings is a gigantic task and involves lot of manpower, resources and budgetary support.  It is a continuous process and is done as per need, inter-se-priority of works, availability of funds and co-operation of State Government, particularly, in getting consent of closure of level crossing and undertaking to maintain road and drainage in future for subways.