In order to avoid increasing incidents of run-ins with cattle, the Indian Railways is working on a metal barrier fencing along the 623-km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad train route. Up to 357 km has been fenced according to the latest information provided on the construction.
A senior Railways official said that up to 57% work along the route has been complete.
Since 2019, over one lakh cattle have been run over while crossing railway tracks across India.
The Indian Railways are using W beam guard rails, commonly used on expressways and highways to demarcate roads for smoother vehicular movement. According to a senior official from the Western Railway, it’s cheaper to use metal beam guard rails rather than brick and mortar walls. While the cost for beam guard rails is ₹45 lakh per kilometre, building a concrete wall costs ₹65 lakh per kilometre.
Covering the 623-km stretch between Mumbai to Ahmedabad with metal barrier fencing will cost the Indian Railways nearly ₹245.26 crore, the official added.
“Because it is a capital intensive exercise, and there is also some concern about potential theft of these metal barriers, we are yet not able to decide on whether we will replicate the metal barrier fencing exercise for other routes,” another senior Railway official told The Hindu.
While there were 75 cases of cattle being run over between March and May 2022, this fell to 55 cases between March and May 2023 along the Vande Bharat Express route from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Further, the Railways claims that in patches where metal barrier fencing has occurred, there are zero cases of cattle run-overs now. “The metal barrier fencing seems to be working,” the official said.
The Railways is keen on increasing the running speed of Vande Bharat Express trains under Mission Rafter (by at least 25 kmph). Currently, while the Vande Bharat Express achieved the speed of 160 kmph during trial runs, its operational speed for all practical purposes is not more than 90 kmph.
