RailEnquiry

PATNA: The train-jeep collision at an unmanned railway crossing near Rajnagar in Madhubani district under Samastipur division of East Central Railway (ECR) on Sunday in which 18 people were killed, has prompted the railways to review its safety measures at unmanned level crossings across the country.

The Railways has chalked out a five-year master plan to convert all unmanned gates into manned ones. About 200 road over bridges and 325 road under bridges would be built during 2011-2012 fiscal at vulnerable places across the country to check recurrence of such accidents, a Railway Board official said.

The railways has, however, completely ruled out the possibility of holding a Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) inquiry into the Rajnagar accident even as the collision between Delhi-Jayanagar Garib Rath and a private vehicle took place at an unmanned gate in broad daylight.

According to sources, Section 113 of Indian Railways Act, 1989, requires intimation of serious accidents to Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) to conduct a probe into them. railway mishap. Under the Railway Accident Rules, 1998, the statutory provisions issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, a statutory inquiry by the CRS, an official of Civil Aviation department, is obligatory in every serious accident of any train carrying passengers, sources said.

During 2009-2010 alone, the CRS inquired into 23 train accidents including collisions (6), derailments (7), accidents at unmanned gates (3), accidents at manned gates (2) and five cases of unusual occurrences across the country. The ECR had witnessed two major accidents that occurred on July 21, 2009, under Samastipur division and on March 22, 2010, under Mughalsarai division. Though the casualty figure was not as high as in the Rajnagar incident, the CRS had inquired into these mishaps, sources said.

According to a Railway Board official, while 41 accidents had taken place at different places at manned railway crossing gates across the country, altogether 329 accidents occurred at unmanned gates taking a toll of several lives between March 2004 and March 2009. The number of unmanned gates was 16,976 in the country till April 1, 2009. However, there has been a sharp increase in this figure, he said.

According to the Board official, the White Paper issued by former railway minister Mamata Banerjee had listed the highest number of unmanned crossing gates in Gujarat (2,621), followed by Andhra Pradesh (1,164), Bihar (1,042) and Madhya Pradesh (929). However, the number of accidents at unmanned gates has been more frequent in Bihar, mainly due to lack of awareness about safety rules among people, he said. The Board official claimed that the number of accidents at unmanned gates had been reduced by 36%.