Level crossings to be ‘safer’
Amid growing concerns over the casualties at unauthorised and unmanned railway level crossings, the authorities yesterday decided to take several measures to ensure safety.
The steps include constructing speed breakers on each side of level crossings, reducing the number of illegal level crossings and erecting overpasses or underpasses in future projects, officials said.
The decisions were made in an inter-ministerial meeting over the issue at Rail Bhaban yesterday.
Representatives of LGRD, road transport and bridges, railways ministries and Bangladesh Railway (BR) were present at the meeting with Railways Ministry Secretary Salim Reza in the chair.
The meeting was held at a time when around 70 percent authorised level crossings do not have dedicated manpower. Besides, there are 1,149 unauthorised level crossings which have no gateman.
UNMANNED, ILLEGAL LEVEL CROSSINGS
Out of 1,412 authorised level crossings, 964 are unmanned, according to the latest document of BR.
At least nine government bodies were involved in constructing unauthorised level crossings, with the Local Government Engineering Department having constructed the highest 516 level crossings, the document shows.
Between 2008 and 2018, 263 people were killed in 297 rail-related accidents between, it said. But the actual number would be much higher.
At least 158 people were killed and 39 others injured in 142 train-related accidents last year, according to Accident Research Institute of Buet.
Of the casualties, 42 were killed and 31 others injured in 25 incidents at level crossings, says an ARI report, which was prepared on the basis of newspaper reports.
The issue of unsafe level crossings came to the fore again after an intercity train hit a bus at a level crossing in Joypurhat last month, leaving 12 passengers of the bus dead and several others injured.
A railway probe committee found that although the Puranpoil level crossing was an authorised one, the gateman failed to lower the gate on time as he was either sleeping or drowsy, causing the accident.
The committee also held the Roads and Highway Department responsible for the accident as the department, without informing the railway authorities, demolished the speed breakers near the level crossing while reconstructing the road.
In a stakeholder meeting on December 21 last year, participants blamed the absence of speed bumps at level crossings and unauthorised level crossings for the accidents and called for constructing speed bumps there.
In a meeting on October 29 that year, the Local Government Division decided to take a project to install gates and relevant structures for the level crossings they erected.
Besides, it also decided to take prior permission from the railways ministry to construct roads for crossing rail tracks, documents show.
YESTERDAY'S DECISIONS
Sardar Sahadat Ali, additional director general (operations) of BR, said as per the decision of the meeting, authorities who erected the unauthorised level crossings would construct speed breakers there.
For now, as per the decision of the meeting, the authorities concerned would not install gates at level crossings while constructing roads that cross rail tracks. Rather, they would build overpasses or underpasses there, he told The Daily Star yesterday.
AKM Abdullah Al Baki, another additional director general of BR, said they would authorise some illegal level crossings after necessary scrutiny while some other unauthorised level crossing would be knocked down.
Besides, the authorities concerned agreed to tear down illegal structures beside the rail tracks, he told this newspaper.
Mahbuber Rahman, a joint secretary of road transport and bridges ministry, who took part in yesterday's meeting, said they would erect speed breakers after necessary scrutiny.
The scrutiny is needed because speed breakers in some cases intensifies accident risks, he told this correspondent.
MUCH MORE TO DO
Hearing yesterday's decisions, Prof Md Hadiuzzaman, director of ARI, said the authorities have to do more to ensure safety at level crossings.
He said the authorities should construct an array of speed breakers -- three speed breakers on both sides of a level crossing at 50-metre intervals --where vehicular movement is relatively high.
There should be level crossing signs and blinking lights on both sides of level crossings, he said.
The authorities should install additional lights on the locomotives, and drivers should switch on those while approaching level crossings, he said. The initiatives can reduce 30 percent accidents, he said citing a research.
The BR should carry out a safety survey at level crossings immediately and on the basis of its findings, necessary steps should be taken, he added.
Besides, the authorities should consider introducing an automated barrier system at level crossings as the number of trains and rail lines is increasing, he added.
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