It’s a project that has for long been on the back-burner — the installation of anti-collision devices (ACDs) for nearly a decade now. Partly owing to political indifference and partly due to internal issues regarding its introduction with the railways as well as its efficacy.
But on Friday, railway minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the ACDs will be introduced in four more railway zones — it was tried out in four other zones on a pilot basis earlier.
The device is expected to help check train collisions and the eight zones that will have it in place are eastern, east coast, east central, south eastern, southern, south central, south western and NF railways.
In addition, Ms Banerjee also stated that a GPS-based fog safety device to help loco pilots run trains in dense fog has been “deployed”. However, what Ms Banerjee failed to mention was that it was only being tried out in some sections of the railways and there is no widespread deployment yet in zones that are hit by fog during the winters.
In yet another safety measure, Ms Banerjee said that the railways will try in the coming year to do away with the 2,500 unmanned eligible level crossings besides constructing 200 road over bridges and another 325 road under bridges.
For passengers security, the railways has set up an all India security helpline which she said is “likely” to become operational this year.