Rlys to be unmanned level crossing free by December, says Goyal

New Delhi: If all goes as per the schedule, the entire rail network would be free from "unmanned level crossing" by December. Reiterating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to do away with all unmanned level crossings, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday claimed that railway officials are working hard to eliminate all unmanned railway crossings on the priority basis.

Outlining the achievements of the ministry, Goyal said that only three rail accidents took place due to unmanned level crossings in the last six months (April-October) as compared to 118 in 2013-14, barely three years ago.

"From 2014-17, the railways eliminated about 1,100 unmanned level crossings every year. There were around 5,500 unmanned level crossings on the rail network across the country out of which, around 5,000 have been eliminated as of September 30. The remaining 474 would be eliminated by December," the minister explained.

Goyal, who took charge as Railway Minister on September 4, 2017, against the backdrop of a major rail accident, said his first meeting was on safety in which he promised to eliminate every unmanned level crossing in a year.

Spelling out his mantra of getting work done, Goyal said, "My mantra of expediting the work is to empower the team, encourage them, set very high aspirational goals, monitor their work and hold them accountable when they are not performing."

Notably, the Railways flung into action after Kushinagar accident in April, in which 13 schoolchildren were killed when a train rammed into a school van at an unmanned railway crossing near Kushinagar, and managed to either man or eliminate all level crossings in major routes across the country in the last six months.

Since 2007-08, 1,272 people have died in accidents at unmanned level crossings, the highest being in 2011-12, when 204 were killed. This year there have been 16 deaths at unmanned level crossings, 13 of them at the Kushinagar accident.