02-07-2025
Vande Bharat incident: Railways to deploy safety measures along tracks
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Patna: The recent tragic dead of a local resident after being hit by semi-high-speed Varanasi-Deoghar Vande Bharat Express on Nawada-Kiul route under Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR) has once again brought attention to the urgent need for safety measures along railway tracks in Bihar.
The 50-year-old man died in an attempt to save his two buffaloes that had strayed onto the tracks on Monday.
This unfortunate incident has intensified demands from local residents, activists and public representatives to take preventive steps, particularly in rural and vulnerable areas where railway tracks pass through open fields or densely populated villages. "Introducing modern trains like Vande Bharat is a step forward towards connectivity, but safety must move forward too.
Barricading vulnerable sections near villages and grazing areas is critical, especially where people and livestock regularly cross tracks," a social activist of Danapur, Pradeep Priyadarshi, said, adding that in states like Bihar, encroachments and unauthorised crossings are common.
Talking to this newspaper on Wednesday, Danapur divisional railway manager (DRM) Jayant Kumar Choudhary said that the Railway Board had sanctioned a proposal to erect fences along DDU-Patna-Jhajha and Patna-Gaya routes of the division.
The railways would build hard concrete boundary walls through thickly inhabited areas, while regular metallic crash barrier-type fencing would be erected in other stretches, he said.
However, fencing all along railway tracks is a prerequisite requirement for high-speed trains running at 160km per hour. The board has sanctioned Rs 600 crore in the current budget for this work, which includes the construction of road over bridges and road under bridges at all vulnerable places in the division, the DRM said.
The railways have started taking precautionary steps along vulnerable places by sealing them to prevent stray animals from coming on tracks, as well as checking trespassing in railway areas through which semi-high-speed trains pass daily, said Sonepur DRM Vivek Bhushan Sood.
