Rs. 6,581 Crore Sanctioned for Elimination of 3438 Level Crossings in Next Financial Year

The Union Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has announced that in the next financial year 970 number of ROB/RUBs and other safety-related works to eliminate 3438 level crossings at a total Railway expense of ₹ 6,581 crore have been sanctioned. This is more than 2600% higher than the sanctioned number of ROBs/RUBs during the current year and the highest ever in recent times. These projects cover almost all States of our Union. Presenting the Railway Budget for 2015-16 in Parliament today he informed the members that keeping in view the critical need to facilitate the construction of ROB/RUB’s, a web based application has been commissioned with user-friendly measures for online submission and approval of drawings within 60 days and an MOU has also been signed with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in this regard.

 The Railways Minister emphasized that the ultimate objective of the Railways is to eliminate all unmanned level crossings by construction of Road over Bridges (ROBs) and Road under Bridges (RUBs). In the short term, RDSO has been asked to develop a suitable device with reliable power supply system based on theft-proof panels/batteries in consultation with Indian Space Research Organization, using geo-spatial technology for providing audio-visual warning to road users at unmanned level crossings. Further, a radio based signal design project has been taken up with IIT Kanpur for warnings at unmanned level crossing.