Mumbai: Railways to build concrete walls to prevent trespassing

From stone walls and iron fence to concrete walls — everything is being tried to prevent people from crossing tracks instead of taking FOB. In the melee, lives are lost, yet no lesson is learnt. The rail authorities claim that they are constructing boundary walls made of cement, hoping that these would not be broken down by the illegal settlers staying along the tracks.

The Western Railway is constructing a 123-km boundary wall between Churchgate and Dahanu Road. As of now 93-km of the wall has been constructed. "These walls, however, would not come up on stretches crossing mangroves and creeks," said Ravinder Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway. The total cost of the project is Rs 13 crore.

The Central Railway, on the other hand, has completed work on 35 km on various stretches.

The biggest problem here is the illegal encroachers who stay along the tracks. The rail authorities blame them for breaking these walls and creating gaps which are then used for trespassing. Several drives have been conducted to remove these encroachments. However, due to lack of political will (most of the encroachments are vote banks for political parties), the drives have proved to be futile.

The passenger associations feel that the political parties should rather come together in spreading awareness against trespassing and crossing tracks. There are children who even play along the tracks. "These are avoidable deaths. Despite foot over bridges, escalators and lifts people prefer dangerous shortcuts," said Madhu Kotian, president of Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.

The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation is also constructing boundary walls at a cost of Rs 43 crore under MUTP-3. These are part of trespass control measures and are not a part of the Railways' project. Trespassing near level crossing gates is another problem that has to be registered.

For this, the railways are constructing foot over bridges as well. After the Elphinstone Road (now Prabhadevi) stampede tragedy, the rail authorities are building 9-10 FOBs annually. The WR aims to complete 33 more FOBs while CR claims to complete 40 more FOBs within a year. Apart from stations, these FOBs shall be built at mid-sections too.