Railways to fence tracks to avoid cattle hits

Similarly, oil-coated bamboos will be used to make cattle barriers along the tracks in the Ghaziabad-Kanpur section in UP, which sees the largest number of cattle run over by trains.

The Railways has written to the Western Railway to construct the fencing at encroachment-prone areas along the 400-km Vande Bharat route.

The crash barrier design currently used by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will be suitably modified for this purpose. Additionally it has been instructed to build limited high subways “liberally” for cattle, humans and two-wheelers to cross.

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Work is underway on Delhi-Mumbai corridor for raising speed up to 160 kmph. For raising the speed, building fencing is a requirement.

However, a Railway Board order has said those walls tend to be too far from the track and may not be effective in preventing cattle. “In order to make such fencing effective, it needs to be completely sealed against any trespassing at level crossings, ROB/RUB, bridges etc with access control feature,” the order said.

The Railway Board order said the fencing should be around 4-7 metres away from the track and that people and cattle should not get any access to the fenced track from common points such as level crossings. Along with Western Railway, an identical order has been sent to North Central Railway asking it to construct bamboo fencing along 20 km of Ghaziabad-Kanpur section of the Delhi-Howrah corridor which, too, is undergoing speed upgrade.