VELLORE: Around 300 residents from five villages -- Latheri, Annankudi, Thirumani, Vayathur, and Solanur -- staged a protest near Latheri level crossing on Wednesday, demanding the state and union governments to construct a structure to cross the railway gate.
The protesters claimed no action has been taken on their repeated demands -- pending for nearly 20 years -- for a road overbridge or an underpass. For around 8,000 families in the five villages, they said, getting across the level crossing is essential to access several facilities, including schools, hospitals and commercial establishments. The villagers said the road traffic is halted for approximately 30 minutes most of the time the boom barrier is lowered, severely delaying commuters and students.
T Harish Kumar, a resident, said the rise in the number of trains operated through the line has exacerbated the situation. He said, "The gate is lowered often. There is no proper alternative route; only two-wheelers can use the one available, that too without pillion riders. If we get across through the level crossing, it will take only two minutes, whereas the alternative route is a four-to-five kilometre detour." Due to this, he said, school students often attempt to get across when the barrier is lowered, including several instances of them, along with their bicycles, crossing the barriers by moving under stationary freight trains. “There have been instances where trains started moving while kids were under them, and bystanders had to rush to save them,” he said.
The resident alleged that ambulance services, due to the level crossing, often do not visit their area, at times even asking the residents to "get across somehow as they wait on the other side of the crossing". Once, he said, an ambulance transporting a senior citizen was stuck for around half an hour at the crossing, during which the elderly man passed away.