Notwithstanding the railway budget’s emphasis on safety, railway officials said it was not possible to man all the level crossings on the grounds that “there is not enough traffic”.
“We have made sure that within the city, all the level crossings are manned and adequate precautions are taken. But on the outskirts, it is not possible to put someone to man a crossing when only about 10-15 vehicles cross the railway line every day,” said a railway official.
Referring to Monday’s accident at a level crossing on Bangalore’s outskirts, he said the railway department did not know why the gate (it was put up a month ago) was not functioning.
He said only an engineer could give an explanation, adding that perhaps the commissioner of railway safety would hold an inquiry in this regard. He denied that there was a guard at the crossing.
According to the divisional railway manager Sudanshu Mani:
“There is a plan to make rail under-bridges (RUBs) and rail over-bridges (ROBs). The process is going on. We have to get recommendations from the state government with regard to RUBs, but over the last one year, we have made at least 25 ROBs. There are seven other level crossings near the accident spot, all of these will be manned. Within the coming fiscal year, all of them will either have a rail over or rail under bridge.”
