Telangana School Bus Tragedy: South Central Railways panel to probe accident

Meanwhile, the SCR general manager, P.K. Srivastava, held a review meeting with the principal heads of departments concerned with the progress of works for eliminating unmanned railway level crossings in the SCR zone.

“Expressing serious concern about the accident near Masaipet crossing on Thursday, the general manager stressed on the urgent need to speed up works related to removal of unmanned crossings. He specifically focused on the crossings where necessary infrastructure has already been made ready or is nearing completion and directed officials that manning of these crossings should be completed within a week’s time,” said the SCR in a press statement.

At present, there are 640 unmanned level crossings in the SCR zone, and an action plan to eliminate each of them is under implementation. The Mr Srivastava said that all methods and alternatives must be employed for quick removal of unmanned crossings in view of the safety risks associated.

The means being adopted in eliminating unmanned level crossings include: manning with a gate-barrier, construction of limited height subways, diversion to a nearby gate and closing down where the traffic density is less.

“The target is to remove all the remaining unmanned crossings by the 2016-17. To expedite this process, the field position of the works related to removal of unmanned level crossings is being closely monitored on a daily basis at the highest levels of SCR’s administration,” said the release.