New Railway Line Projects to Not Have Level Crossings, Says Rly Board in New Order

The Railway Board has said no level crossing will be planned in a new line project and any crossings already approved in ongoing projects should be removed. In an order issued last week, the Railway Board asked the zones to prepare detailed project reports accordingly.

“The policy for level crossings on new line, gauge conversion, doubling and multi tracking projects is modified… No level crossing shall be planned in a new line project,” the order reads.

For ongoing projects, the order said Road Over Bridge (ROB) or Road Under Bridge (RUB) can be provided to eliminate level crossings by revising the estimate of the ongoing project, if the formation level permits its construction without any substantial raising or lowering, else these ROB/RUBS can be sanctioned separately.

For a doubling and multi-tracking project, the existing level crossings may be planned for elimination with ROB and RUB, if the project viability is not affected. Otherwise, elimination of level crossings should be planned under ROB/RUB works, the order added.

It is important to note that all unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) on the Broad Gauge network were eliminated in 2019. Only 751 UMLCs on Meter Gauge and Narrow Gauge (NG) sections exist in the Indian Railways.

For gauge-conversion projects, the orders said since these projects are sanctioned under uni-gauge policy, all level crossings can be planned for elimination with ROB/RUB.

“However, RUBs shall be planned only when no substantial increase in earthwork is involved. Otherwise, ROBs can be planned based on cost benefit analysis,” the board said. This order, the board added, supersedes all previous instructions on the subject.

Earlier order rolled back

Similar orders were issued earlier as well but in 2019, the board allowed level crossing instead of RUBs or Limited Height Subways (LHS) to minimise the project cost by reducing land acquisition and formation cost.

The 2019 order was issued as the policy to have no level crossings on new line projects has led to increase in land acquisition earth work, having considerable financial implication.

“Many new line projects, un-remunerative to begin with, have become unaffordably expensive, as land cost itself constitutes 30 to 50 per cent of the project cost,” the earlier order said.