Railways To Construct 1,000 KM Boundary Wall In Next 6 Months To Prevent Cattle Run-Overs

The Indian Railways will construct 1,000 kilometres of boundary walls over the next six months in areas of its rail network where maximum accidents of cattle being run over by trains have been reported, stated Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Railways.

"We are working seriously on the issue of building boundary walls. We are looking at two different designs. While we have approved one, which is a sturdy wall, over the next five to six months, we plan to build 1,000 km of such walls across sections to determine if the design works", stated the Minister of Railways.

According to the official data, so far in 2022, as many as 4,000 trains have been affected by cattle run-overs. Furthermore, 200 trains were affected in the initial nine days of October.

1,000 KM Of Boundary Walls

Minister Vaishnaw expressed that the conventional boundary will be unable to resolve the issue of cattle run-overs but will end up affecting village residents around the location, reported NDTV.

However, the minister did not mention anything about the material that will be utilised for building the boundary walls to make them strong enough to not only keep the livestock away from rail tracks but also safeguard them from human intervention.

The short hood or nose of the Vande Bharat Express train running between Mumbai-Ahmedabad, launched on October 1, was damaged due to three cattle run-overs in the initial nine days of the month. Such instances can cause severe damage to trains, resulting in delays and, in some cases, their derailment.

Worst Affected Zones Identified

As per the information by the Press Trust of India (PTI), with over 6,500 of the 26,000 cattle run-over cases in 2020-21, the worst affected zones have been North Central Railway. It covers 3,000 km of tracks and comprises parts of the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors.

It is the gateway for trains from the eastern parts of India to reach the northern parts of the country and includes divisions like Prayagraj, Jhansi and Agra.

The stretches outlined for constructing boundary walls include sections in Northern Railways and North Central Railways -- the Lucknow Division connecting Alam Nagar and Lucknow section, Moradabad Division linking Alam Nagar and Shahjehanpur, Prayagraj Division joining Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay-Prayagraj section and Jhansi Division allying Virangana Lakshmibai-Gwalior.

According to officials, the Northern Railways zone reported the maximum number of cattle run-over cases in 2022 -- nearly 6,800 --across divisions of Delhi, Ambala in Haryana, Firozpur in Punjab and Moradabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.

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