Railway Budget 2019: Ahead of the Railway Budget 2019, which is a part of the Union Budget 2019, will be presented today, Indian Railways has a big safety announcement! Piyush-Goyal led Railway Ministry has successfully eliminated all unmanned level crossings (ULCs) throughout the zonal railway networks across the country. With this historic move, train accidents and station mishaps will now be fewer. On January 31, 2019, Indian Railways declared that the last unmanned level crossing has been sealed. With the Railway Budget 2019, big announcements for the Indian Railways network are likely and the government is expected to announce better amenities for trains and passengers, infrastructure advancements and more.
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As these unmanned level crossings were not protected, there have been a number of deaths in the past due to a collision between trains and vehicles. Since unmanned level crossings were not designated crossings, people crossing over, often suffer injury or loss of life. As unmanned level crossings have been entirely removed from the railway network, so the number of train accidents are expected to decrease significantly. According to the Railway Board, the number of unmanned level crossings on broad gauge routes had been reduced to a great extent, starting from April 2017. In the month of April in 2017, as many as 4,943 unmanned level crossings were reported on broad gauge routes. A year later, the number of those crossings was reduced to 3,479 by April in 2018. By the month of November in 2018, the number of level crossings was further reduced to 77 and by December, only 1 unmanned level crossing remained.
According to information shared by the Railway Ministry, the number of railway accidents caused due to unmanned level crossings in the year 2009-10 was 65. 48 accidents were reported in 2010-2011, 54 accidents in 2011-2012, 53 accidents in 2012-2013, 47 accidents in 2013-2014, 50 accidents in 2014-2015, 29 accidents in 2015-2016, 20 accidents in 2016-2017, 10 accidents in 2017-2018, 3 accidents in 2018-2019.
With the latest initiative ahead of Railway Budget 2019, Indian Railways has concluded the process of elimination of unmanned level crossings, without obstructing the movement of any passenger or freight trains. The presence of these level crossings were a big threat to the safety of trains and also a threat to the security of the people using them. In addition to this, the national transporter has also constructed many foot-over-bridges (FOBs) as well as subways for people to cross the railway tracks.