440 people died while crossing rail tracks since 2021: RPF

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Around 440 people have died while crossing the railway tracks in the Bengaluru Division since 2021, according to the Railway Protection Force (RPF). The officials say that the deaths are due to ‘trespassing,’ which means the act of walking across railway tracks.

The railway authorities claim they can't actually stop people from crossing tracks, and it was up to people to be more responsible. In 2018, the railways had proposed to replace railway line crossings with rail over bridges (ROB) and rail under bridges (RUB) to stop tresspassing.

But the proposal was never fully implemented in the state. A retired assistant engineer, Srinivas, said, "The railways doesn't have enough land to implement ROB and RUB, which leads to complications in implementing the project." He also adds that thousands of people walk across the tracks every day and posting a guard can save lives.

But on many stations there are no guards at all times. Unauthorised crossing of railway tracks is a punishable offence under Section 147 of the Railways Act, 1989. Debashmita Chattopadhyay Banerjee of RPF Bengaluru division, said that the railways often makes announcements making people aware about the risks.

"The officials even visit nearby areas and create awareness among people living there that they shouldn't be crossing the tracks. There have also been cases where people would be taking selfies on the tracks or making videos and they don't realize that a train is coming. This has also led to several accidents. So, we continuously try to raise awareness among the people," he said.