Indian Railways plan to eliminate all 2,568 manned level crossing
After taking the charge for the second tenure, the Railway ministry is planning to get rid of all 2,568 manned level crossing in the busiest corridors of Golden Quadrilateral of the country. It is planning to construct Road Overbridges and Road Underbridges with faster approval of designs at the central level. The plan has been proposed as the part of the Railways agenda for 100 days.
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In its second term, the Modi government led Railway ministry has drawn up an ambitious plan to eliminate all manned level crossings terming it as a National Project. It has planned to bear the cost Railways solely without the involvement of states. It will get the aid of Rs 50,000 crore from the government spread over four years.
The Indian Railways had eliminated all unmanned level crossings in record time last year.
In the current set up, the state government requires to bear the 50 per cent expenditure in the construction of the structures to eliminate level crossings. However, with the new plan, the state government will only have to give the land which will be required for the structures and the center will bear the expense wholely.
To bear the cost, Railways is planning to urge people to give up the subsidy component of train fares in the first 100 days, inspired by the Ujjwala scheme experiment.
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Elimination of various unmanned and manned level crossings will improve the safety on the Railways network as several had lost their lives in the past while crossing Railway lines.
Railways are also planning to give two trains to IRCTC which will be roping in the private players to run the trains at tariffs and with amenities decided by private operators. The idea of involving private players in the railway sector had been under discussion for years.
Amid this, the Railways is also planning to corporatise the seven production units with Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareli.
