(a) the criteria fixed regarding provision of manned railway level crossings;
(b) the number of such manned railway level crossings which have not been erected so far despite fulfilment of all norms,
zone-wise;
(c) whether it is proposed to entrust the unmanned level crossings to the private sector;
(d) if so, the details along with terms and conditions thereof; and
(e) the other necessary steps being taken in this regard?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS (SHRI PAWAN KUMAR BANSAL)
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 399 BY SHRI SANJAY BRIJKISHOR LAL NIRUPAM AND
SHRI RAJENDRA AGRAWAL TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 20.12.2012 REGARDING UNMANNED LEVEL CROSSINGS
(a) & (b): The extant policies for manning / up-gradation of the existing level crossings as well as provision of the new
level crossings on Indian Railways, are given below:
(i) Statutory Obligation: As per statutory obligation, Railway liability is limited to provide new level crossings manned
or unmanned or Road Over/Under Bridge (ROB/RUB), as the case may be in consultation with the State Govt. at the time of
laying new railway lines. Railway shall not be liable to undertake additional accommodation works, on its own cost, if the
need arises, after the expiration of 10 years from the date of commissioning of Railway lines for public traffic (Para-16(b)
of Indian Railway Act-1989).
(ii) Provision of the new Level Crossings after 10 years of commission of line: As per Para 1819 (a) of Engineering Code,
for providing a new Level Crossing, the Sponsoring Authority is required to bear the initial capital cost as well as
capitalized cost of annual recurring maintenance and operational cost. Such works shall be carried out as deposit work.
(iii) Manning/Up-gradation necessitated due to increase in volume of road traffic: As per Para 1819 (b) of Engineering Code,
manning, up-gradation or provision of additional gatekeepers at existing level crossing necessitated due to increase in
volume of road traffic only, the initial capital and capitalized cost of annual recurring maintenance and operational cost
has to be borne fully by the State
Government/Local Authorities concerned. Such works shall be carried out as deposit work.
Policy on manning of unmanned level crossing: As per extant rules, Railways provide level crossing in consultation with the
State Govt., as per local requirements. In case, an unmanned level crossing provided initially and maintained at the cost of
the Railways needs manning/upgrading due to increase in road traffic only, the cost, both initial as well as recurring and
maintenance has to be borne by the State govt./Road Authority concerned. However, keeping in view the grave consequence of
accidents at unmanned level crossings, Railways have decided to progressively man vulnerable unmanned level crossings based
on, rail-road traffic volume, visibility conditions at unmanned level crossings, etc, as per extant criteria issued vide
Board’s letter No. 2006/CE-I/LX/WP dated 30.08.2011 as under:
Revised Criteria of Manning of unmanned level crossings (August’2011):
Category-I: All Unmanned Level Crossings Gates with Train Vehicle Unit (TVU) above 3000.
Category-II: All unmanned level crossings gates with visibility restricted to 800 meters for road users and TVU above 2500.
Category-III: All unmanned level crossings, which do not fall in Category- I & II above and which cannot be eliminated by
any other methods like construction of diversions road, subway, closure of gates having low TVU or any other means as per
extant policy instructions.
No. of unmanned level crossings which are eliminated by manning and other than manning in last three years and in the
current year (upto October’12) is as under:
Railway 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 (upto October`12) By By Total By By Total By By Total By By Total Man- Other Man- Other Man- Other Man- Other ning than ning than ning than ning than man- man- man- man- ning ning ning ning
Central 4 4 8 17 15 32 8 19 27 0 4 4
Eastern 10 6 16 16 24 40 21 10 31 7 25 32
East 4 11 15 12 13 25 80 6 86 12 2 14 Central
East 30 14 44 14 22 36 2 15 17 0 29 29 Coast
Northern 67 98 165 65 206 271 115 39 154 30 26 56
North 10 13 23 9 28 37 2 19 21 0 1 1 Central
North 20 31 51 88 64 152 31 36 67 10 35 45 Eastern
Northeast 53 27 80 42 51 93 118 31 149 1 2 3 Frontier
North 18 39 57 24 86 110 36 52 88 2 15 17 Western
Southern 31 18 49 15 14 29 37 78 115 33 44 77
South 20 33 53 32 78 110 121 38 159 21 10 31 Central
South 29 41 70 31 25 56 66 38 104 6 7 13 Eastern
South East 18 33 51 29 64 93 9 36 45 1 5 6 Central
South 13 22 35 10 41 51 22 28 50 50 34 84 Western
Western 40 130 170 16 48 64 101 17 118 12 18 30
West Central 10 33 43 14 21 35 8 19 27 3 25 28
Total 377 553 930 434 800 1234 777 481 1258 188 282 470