Tamil Nadu   

60 more level crossings to be manned soon

Special Correspondent

208 gates to be converted in phases

NEW SERVICE: Minister of State for Railways R. Velu flagging off the Chennai Egmore-Nagercoil (weekly) superfast express from Egmore Railway station on Thursday. Thomas Varghese, GM, Southern Railway, and M. Subramanian, Chennai Mayor (right), are a lso in the picture. — Photo: S. S. KUMAR

CHENNAI: Steps are being taken to convert 60 unmanned railway level crossing gates in the State into manned ones before the end of the current financial year. In Tamil Nadu there are 1,178 unmanned level crossings of which 208 qualify for conversion, which will be done in phases.

Addressing media persons here on Thursday after inaugurating the Chennai Egmore - Nagercoil (weekly) super fast express, Union Minister of State for Railways R.Velu said the capital cost of converting an unmanned crossing into a manned gate was Rs. 12 lakh to 15 lakh and the annual maintenance cost would be Rs. 3 lakh. He appealed to MPs to allot funds from the local area development scheme for constructing railway over/under bridges in their area. If they gave funds for one ROB/RUB then another ROB/RUB of the MPs choice would be constructed by the railways. The administration was also planning to install advance warning systems in unmanned gates.

The Minister regretted that though in unmanned gates railways displayed caution notices, vehicle operators failed to take note of them. About 48 per cent of fatalities in railways occurred at level crossings. Even in manned level crossings, vehicle owners attempted to cross closed gates. Despite public awareness campaigns and restriction on the vehicles' speed near the gates with rough roads, accidents occurred.

No "bullet train"

The Railway Ministry decided to give up the "bullet train" proposals due to the prohibitive cost. The Ministry felt that there was no point on spending a huge amount on bullet trains when about 250 schemes worth Rs 56,000 crore were yet to be implemented. Instead of bullet trains, the Ministry decided to increase the speed of major trains by upgrading the tracks, besides providing separate corridors for freight traffic.

To start with, speed of trains running in the golden quadrilateral would be increased to 150 kmph from 120 kmph.

The Ministry had also tightened security measures by installing closed circuit TVs in major stations, providing police escorts in major trains, sanctioning bomb detection squads in all railway divisions. Luggage scanners would also be installed in major stations, he added.

Earlier addressing the function, the Minister said soon Tamil Nadu would achieve the distinction of becoming uni-gauge.

In the current year, the Ministry had sanctioned Rs 325 crore for conversion work, which was Rs 125 crore more than that of last year. For improving passenger amenities in Southern Railway Rs 40 crore had been sanctioned.

Flagging off the new train service, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran called to installing warning systems in unmanned level crossings to prevent accidents.

State Transport Minister K.N. Nehru thanked the Railway Ministry for sharing the traffic burden by introducing more new trains.

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