Rail Budget put focus on unmanned crossings….Raghvendra Rao
A little less than three hours before Trinamool Congresss Mukul Roy was sworn in as the Union Railways Minister, the death of 16 people in an accident at an unmanned level crossing near Hathras came as an ironic reminder of how the Indian Railwayswith an immiment rollback of the recent fare hike loomingcould now struggle to fund its ambitious plan of eliminating all manned and unmanned level crossings in the country.
Two of the most important safety related worksrelating to making unmanned level crossings manned and constructing overbridges and underbridges to eliminate level crossingshave suffered for years for want of funds. Even a partial rollback in fares could directly impact these works, official said.
In his maiden Rail Budget speech, the one that cost him his job, Dinesh Trivedi had told the Parliament that more than 40 per cent of the consequential train accidents, involving 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the total casualties occur at unmanned level crossings and that funding is an issue which needs to be collectively addressed.
Trivedi, in a bid to fast track the elimination of level crossings in the next five years, had also announced the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle named Rail-Road Grade Separation Corporation of India in the Rail Budget.