Title - Railways to cordon off Delhi-Palwal tracks

Concrete wall on 51-km section to prevent people, animals from crossing
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In a first-of-its-kind move, the Delhi Division of Northern Railway is planning to cordon off sections of railway tracks.The proposal aims to prevent accidents caused when people or animals cross railway tracks.On a pilot project, Railways will construct an RCC (reinforced cement concrete) wall on both sides of the tracks in the 51-km Hazrat Nizamuddin-Palwal section.“An expression of interest has been called, inviting agencies for construction of RCC boundary wall on both sides of the Delhi-Palwal section to prevent trespassing. The boundary wall will run a total of 102 km — 51-km on each side,” a senior official said.The boundary wall will be 2.5-m high and will have concertina wires at the top.Officials said a new model has been proposed for construction of the boundary wall.“The construction of the wall will be completely funded by a private entrepreneur. To make the project viable, in lieu of construction of the proposed wall, the agency will be given exclusive advertising rights on the full length of the boundary wall for a fixed period,” he said.According to the contract, the private agency will be permitted to install unipoles up to 1.2 m above the wall.The indicative project cost for the construction of the boundary wall is roughly Rs 100 crore.A large number of Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains run at speeds of up to 150 km/h on the Delhi-Palwal section. Railways estimates say on an average, one incident of cattle or track crossing impeding train operations is reported every day.“The move is set to be very helpful keeping in mind safe and smooth operations of high-speed trains and movement of pedestrians and motorists. Raising a boundary wall will be deter people from crossing tracks,” the official said.Officials said after construction of the Delhi-Palwal wall is completed, a similar project will be undertaken on the Delhi-Gurgaon section.