West-Central Railway becomes first zone to eliminate Unmanned Level Crossings

The West-Central Railway (WCR) zone headquartered in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh has become the first Railway Zone in Indian Railways to eliminate all unmanned level crossings.
The target was achieved after all 118 unmanned level crossings of WCR zone were eliminated in phase manner by August 31, 2015. 80 crossings were eliminated in the financial year 2014-15 and the remaining 38 crossings were eliminated in August 2015.
This target was achieved by constructing 33 Limited Height Sub Ways (LHs) and manning of 30 level crossings.
It is a being considered as a big success in the safety initiative of Indian Railways as unmanned railway crossings continue to remain a deathtrap in India as alone it had killed 126 people in 2014-15.

Elimination all unmanned level crossings

• Union Railway Ministry has taken a series of safety steps to prevent accidents at these unmanned railway crossings.
• Indian Railways have around 30,348 level crossings, out of which 11,563 i.e. nearly 40 per cent, are unmanned.
• Some of the safety initiatives include closing of many crossings, construction of rail overbridge and rail underbridge. At certain places Gate Mitra and Gate Counsellors are also deployed.
• Indian Railways is also planning to tie up with India Space Research Organistion (ISRO) to safety crossing system using Geo-spatial technologies.
• These technologies will include combination of Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing in order to send mobile message alerts to people in vicinity of an unmanned level crossing.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2015