Indian Railways has decided to modify plans to fence the tracks between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, including moving the structures closer to the tracks and ensuring proper sealing of level crossings, according to officials and instructions seen. The move comes after several cases of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Vande Bharat (VB) Express hitting cattle, killing animals and damaging trains on its 525-km journey came to light. “To ensure effective fencing and prevent any encroachment, the department has decided to construct boundary walls closer to the tracks,” a railway official said.
“Railway Board has directed to carry out suitably arranged and designed fencing based on NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) barriers for a length of about 400 km on the Ahmedabad-Vadodara-Mumbai Western Railway section to prevent incidents of cattle and people from running over,” said a letter issued by the Railways by Western Railway Division Council.
“The distance of the fencing from the axis of the nearest track will vary from 4.5 m to 7 m,” the letter added. Currently, fencing is to be erected on the border of the railway’s land, the paper said. In the last month, the VB Express train, which reached a maximum speed of 160 km/h, was damaged three times due to collision with cattle on the tracks.
According to the letter, the actual distance of the fencing will be decided by the band track taking into account the site conditions, the need for service communication for possible maintenance/renovation works, multi-track works, the level of intrusion and the overall effectiveness of the proposed fencing. He also added that the fencing should be such as to seal “track entry at crossings, ROBs (overpasses), RUBs (underpasses), bridges and places with required access control”.
The Ghaziabad-Kanpur stretch in the NCR zone also witnesses frequent movement of cattle, a railway official said. For this stretch, the Ministry of Zonal Railways has asked them to construct suitably designed cattle fencing of “seasoned bamboos treated with creosate oil, coated with HDPE (High Density Polyethylene)” for a stretch of 20 km (minimum two complete block sections) on the North Central Railway.
Commenting on the plan, Shri Prakash, former member of Traffic of Indian Railways said, “Fencing of railway tracks at selected places may not be very effective. Second, fencing should be done to protect the entire railway property near the tracks. Securing only part of the railway land with a protective embankment and leaving the rest of the railway land unprotected will be an open call for intervention. Any reduction in railway land may also hamper rescue operations in case of accidents.”
