'All unmanned level crossings on railways' broad gauge track eliminated'

The railways has eliminated all unmanned level crossings on its broad gauge track network, but metre gauge and narrow gauge track sections still have 559 such crossings with Gujarat having the highest at 262, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Sharing data on level crossings, both manned and unmanned, in the country in a written reply, Railway Minister Ashwini Vishnaw said that "all unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) on running lines of the broad gauge (BG) network of the Indian Railways have been eliminated by 31.01.2019".

"Only 559 UMLCs on metre gauge (MG) and narrow gauge (NG) sections exist on Indian Railways, which are planned for elimination during gauge conversion of sections," he said.

He was replying to questions raised by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and BJD MP Achyuta Samanta on the status of railway level crossings in the country.

The minister said that "as on 01.04.2023, there are a total 18,477 level crossings on the running lines of the Indian Railways network, which include 17,918 manned-level crossings (MLCs) and 559 unmanned level crossings (UMLCs)".

He added that "240 of manned level crossings have been eliminated further up to October 2023".

The minister also presented state-wise data of MLCs and UMLCs, according to which Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of MLCs at 3,040 on the broad gauge section, while Gujarat has the highest 262 UMLCs on the narrow gauge section.

The data shows that since April 1, 2019, nine people have been killed in accidents at level crossing gates.

Vaishnaw also elaborated on the steps that the railways has taken to reduce accidents at level crossings.

"Level crossing having high rail/road vehicular traffic are interlocked with signals for enhancing safety. Inspection drives are launched from time to time to ensure availability of basic infrastructure at level crossings such as whistle boards, road warning boards, speed breakers, etc," Vaishnaw said.

"Public awareness campaigns/safety slogans are undertaken to create safety consciousness among road users for safe passage at level crossings," he added.