28 July 2013

Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Railways Meets Agenda of the Meeting was “Construction of Road Over Bridge/Road Under Bridge (Robs/Rubs on Busy Level Crossings”.

The Minister of Railways, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge said that At present, Indian Railways has decided to progressively eliminate all unmanned level crossings by generally constructing ROBs/RUBs at unmanned level crossings or by manning the unmanned level crossings. The Railway Minister was speaking at the Consultative Committee meeting of Members of Parliament for Ministry of Railways held here today i. e. 26th July 2013. The agenda for the meeting was “Construction of Road Over Bridge/Road Under Bridge (ROBs/RUBs on busy level crossings”. He said that as on 01.04.2013, Indian Railways have 31,254 level crossings out of which,18,672 (60%) are manned and balance 12,582 (40%) are unmanned. These unmanned level crossings account for maximum number of consequential train accidents.

The Railway Minister further said that Road Over Bridge can be build over level crossings with Train Vehicle Unit (TVU) more than one lakh provided state government or local body is agreed to share 50 percent cost of the project. The Railway Minister said that in order to garner funds for the projects, Indian Railways have requested the State Governments to share the cost of the projects especially for the construction of ROBs/RUBs in respective states. It has also decided that if state governments want to construct level crossings under Public Private Partnership mode, Indian Railways would fully bear the costs of its Railway share on the projects, Shri Kharge added.

Referring to fund constraints, the Railway Minister pointed out that Indian Railways need funds for various ongoing projects like new lines, gauge conversion, doubling projects, construction of ROBs/RUBs etc. Due to limited availability of resources and with funds distributed over large numbers of projects, the Indian Railways were not able to achieve the desired level of progress.

.Members participating in the meeting requested for expediting work of various pending ROBs/RUBs projects. Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Arunendra Kumar, Members of the Railway Board and senior officials of Ministry of Railways were among those present at the meeting.