HC issues rule on repairing 1,085 unauthorised level crossings

The High Court today issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why it should not be directed to repair 1,085 unauthorised level crossings and to deploy gatemen and ensure safety at the level crossings across the country.

In the rule, the court also asked the authorities concerned of government to show cause why it should not be directed not to construct level crossings without permission from the Bangladesh Railway Department.   

Secretaries to the ministries of railway and local government and rural development (LGRD), director general of Bangladesh Railway and chief engineer of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) have been made respondents to the rule.

The HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal came up with the rule following a writ petition filed by Law and Life Foundation, a rights organisation, seeking necessary order.

During hearing, petitioner’s lawyer Barrister Humayun Kabir Pallab told the HC that there are reportedly 1,412 authorised level crossings and 1,085 unauthorised level crossings across the country.

The unauthorised level crossings, which are built in the roads of LGED and Union Parishads, are the main cause for many accidents, he said.   

The organisation submitted the writ petition on July 18 to the HC seeking its directive on the government to give as compensation Tk 1 crore to the families of each of the 11 victims who died when a train rammed a microbus at a level crossing in Ullapara upazila of Sirajganj on July 15.

In the petition, the Law and Life Foundation also requested the HC to order the respondents to compensate Tk 10 lakh to each of the passengers who were injured in the accident and to direct the respondents to take necessary steps to close the country’s unauthorised level crossings and to stop carrying passengers on the roof of trains.

The organisation also urged the HC to order the respondents to take necessary steps to deploy gatemen at all the level crossings across the country.