This move of the India railways is being taken in the aftermath of the major accident, which took place at Kushinagar's unmanned crossing in Uttar Pradesh, in the month of April.
In a major development, Indian Railways have decided to remove all the unmanned crossings across the major routes in the country. This move is being taken in the aftermath of the major accident, which took place at Kushinagar's unmanned crossing in Uttar Pradesh, in the month of April. A school van was rammed in by the train, which led to the death of 13 children. The railway government swung into action five months after the accident, as promised, to nullify the possibilities of such accidents.
Kushinagar accident, which happened during the Karnataka assembly elections, led to a major political turmoil, after which the railway minister, Piyush Goyal, promised to abolish all the unmanned crossings across the country, by September this year.
As per the data available, only 600 unmanned railway crossings will be left by the end of this month. Also, the routes where the average permissible speed of the train is 130km/hour is free from all the deadly unmanned crossings. This development is seen as a significant one as, since 2007-08, 1,272 people have died in accidents at unmanned level crossings. The highest number of accidents were recorded in the year 2011-12 when 204 people died. In April, there were as many as 3,470 unmanned crossings in the nation, which have now been drastically reduced.
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