Prevention Of Cattle Run-Over: Fencing Completed On 462-Km-Long Track On Mumbai-Ahmedabad Route

Aiming at preventing cattle run-over, the Indian Railways has fenced a total of 462 km of the track on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route till June end, this year.

Western Railway has undertaken concerted efforts for fencing off the 622-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad route to facilitate seamless train operation.

According to the Railways, the entire Mumbai-Ahmedabad route would be fenced off with metal barrier by July end this year, as the work is going on full speed.

Since 2019, over one lakh cattle have been run-over while crossing railway tracks across India. Besides cattle-hit incidents, there are also human run-over cases on the tracks.

The Railways is using W-beam guard rails, commonly used on expressways and highways to demarcate roads for smoother vehicular movement.

According to Railways, it’s cheaper to use metal beam guard rails rather than brick and mortar walls. While the cost for beam guard rails is Rs 45 lakh per km, building a concrete wall costs Rs 65 lakh per km.

Since the fencing of the tracks are being done in stretches, the cattle run-over cases have declined significantly in the route. The Railways maintains that in patches where metal barrier fencing has occurred, there are zero cases of cattle run-overs now.

According to the plan, the entire routes of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah will be fenced off, to allow trains to run on enhanced speed.