Govt Fast-tracks Rs. 5,100-cr Railway Overbridge Project : The Economic Times

New Delhi:



ON TRACK Roads ministry to build 100 overbridges in a year & another 125 by March 2017; most to come up in Bihar, Haryana, MP

The roads, transport and highway ministry has fast . 5,100-crore project to tracked a ` build 225 overbridges on major railway level crossings, which account for 40% of all train accidents and 66% of fatalities. The ministry will construct 100 overbridges in a year from now and another 125 in the year to March 2017, a senior government official said. The decision followed a review by Roads, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday.

Most of these overbridges will be built in Bihar, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. “We'll be appointing consultants for every state and the detailed project report (DPR) would be prepared after that. It will take at least four months to award the consultancy work and six months will be required to prepare the DPR,“ the official said.

There are 250 major level crossings on the National Highway network, which are not covered under any programme. The government plans to complete the civil construction work of bridges in five years on all the projects.

Safety at level crossings came under the scanner earlier this week when six people, including a Congress legislator from Karnataka, were killed when a truck carrying granite slabs crashed into the Ben galuru-Nanded Express at a level crossing in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The official quoted earlier said the land for the overbridges is being acquired at all locations and coordination has been sought from the railway authorities.

“Land acquisition cost is being kept at four times of the circle rate, leading to a very high cost. In some cases, it is also surpassing the cost of civil work but still we are going forward with the project, keeping road safety in view.“

The high-level committee on railway safety, headed by Anil Kakodkar, has recommended elimination of all level crossings (manned and unmanned) within five years by setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The responsibility to remove all unmanned level crossing on the National Highways network has been given to the roads ministry .

ET VIEW

Invest in Rail & Road Safety

It makes perfect sense to fast-track motor-able over-bridges at the major rail-crossings. And especially so, as the railways plan to increase average train speeds soon. It would boost rail and road safety and summarily reduce accidents and casualties. The railways also need to fast-track and phase-out unmanned level-crossings. In parallel, we need regular and systematic safety audits for rail bridges. What's desirable and indeed essential is a more holistic approach to rail and passenger safety.