Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indian-railways-plans-on-fencing-tracks-to-avoid-cattle-run-over-incidents-101669104820784.html
Publisher: Hindustan Times
The move comes after several instances came to light where the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express hit cattle on its 525-km journey, killing animals and the trains getting damaged
The Indian Railways has decided to tweak plans for fencing tracks between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, including shifting these structures closer to the rails and ensuring level crossings are sealed properly, according to officials and directions seen by HT.
The move comes after several instances came to light where the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Vande Bharat (VB) Express hit cattle on its 525-km journey, killing animals and the trains getting damaged.
“To ensure effective fencing and avoid any disruptions, the ministry has decided to construct boundary walls nearer to the tracks,” a railways official said.
“The railway board has instructed execution of suitably modified and designed fencing based on NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) crash barrier for about 400 km on Ahmedabad-Vadodara-Mumbai section of Western Railway to prevent the cattle and human run over cases,” a letter issued by the Railway Board to the Western Railways division, seen by HT, stated.
“The distance of the fencing from the centreline of the nearest track will range from 4.5m to 7m,” the letter added.
According to the letter, the actual distance of fencing will be decided by the zonal railway considering the site conditions, requirement of service road for any maintenance/ renewal works, multi tracking works, level of trespassing and overall effectiveness of the proposed fencing.
It also added that the fencing work should be such that it seals “the entry to track at level crossings, ROB (flyovers), RUB (underpasses), bridges, [and] locations with required access control”.
The Ghaziabad-Kanpur stretch in the NCR zone too witnesses frequent cattle movement, a railways official said.
For this stretch, the ministry has asked the zonal railways to execute the suitably designed cattle fencing made of “seasoned and Creosate oil treated Bamboos coated with HDPE (high density poly-ethylene)” for a stretch of 20 km (minimum two complete block sections) on North Central Railway.
Commenting on the plan, Shri Prakash, former member of the Traffic of Indian Railways, said, “The fencing of the railway tracks at selected places may not be very effective. Secondly, fencing should be done to protect the entire railway land in the vicinity of the tracks. Securing only a part of railway land through a protective wall, keeping the rest of the railway land unprotected, will be an open invitation for encroachment. Also, any reduction in the railways land may hamper relief operations in case of accidents.”
