Railways eliminates all unmanned level crossings: Goyal

New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) Keeping its promise of providing safe rail travel, the Railways has achieved its target of eliminating all unmanned level crossings, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

Sharing the news of elimination of all the 3,479 unmanned level crossings across the country, Goyal tweeted in Hindi, "Today during his address in Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind said that almost all unmanned level crossings has eliminated in the country. I am proud to say that the last unammed level crossing of the country has also been eliminated this evening."

According to a senior Railway Ministry official, the Indian Railways has eliminated as many as 3,479 unmanned level crossings in the last one year.

The official said the last unmanned level crossing in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad region was converted into a manned level crossing.

The achievement comes after Goyal prioritized the manning of the level crossings after a deadly accident in Uttar Pradesh in April last year that killed 13 school children when a passenger train crashed into a van at an unmanned railway crossing.

A railway ministry official said that the railways eliminated 1,253 UMLCs in 2015-16. In the last seven months, progress improved more than five times as compared to the last years.

According to the Ministry official, in 2014-15 at least 130 people died in incidents at unmanned level crossings. The number fell to 58 in 2015-16 and to 40 in 2016-17. In 2017-18, 26 people died while from April 1 to December 15, 2018, there were only 16 such deaths.