ROURKELA: Hema Mohanty (48), a working slum woman, was crawling under a stationary goods train to cross the tracks near the permanently closed level-crossing at Basanti Colony here when the train started moving. Recounting her ordeal, she narrates how she escaped death by a whisker on the day.
In the absence of Foot Over Bridges (FOB), like Mohanty hundreds of men, women and school children in hurry to reach their destinations unmindfully take risk to cross the railway tracks through the permanently closed level-crossings at Basanti Colony, STI and ITI areas of Rourkela. The situation becomes dangerous when goods trains remain stranded on the tracks for long.
Though local authorities of the South Eastern Railways (SER) blame people for taking needless risk, those in the know of things said the pedestrians crossing the railway tracks are victims of the faulty decision of the Indian Railways (IR).
They said after construction of Road Over Bridges (ROBs) over level-crossing at Basanti Colony, STI and ITI areas in a 50:50 cost sharing ratio with the Odisha government, the Railways, despite widespread public resentment, had withdrawn manpower to permanently close these level-crossings without construction of FOBs for pedestrians.
Rourkela city is equally divided by the Howrah-Mumbai main line of the SER which daily sees movement of 170-180 trains. To make things worse there is a thick density of slum population along the five kilometre stretch of the railway tracks between Rourkela and Panposh. While residents using own vehicles have no problem in covering extra distance of a couple of kilometres through the ROBs it is practically unwise to expect pedestrians to walk that extra distance on a daily basis, especially during rush hour, they pointed out.
Incidentally, demand is gaining ground for construction of FOBs at the permanently closed level-crossings and at upcoming ROB sites.
Member of the Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) of SER and president of the Rourkela Development Steering Committee (RDCC) Subrata Patnaik said construction of FOBs along the ROBs is a dire need. He said, “I would draw attention of the Railway Ministry and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to jointly formulate policy to construct FOBs for pedestrians parallel to the existing and upcoming ROBs.” Each FOB would need an additional Rs 5-8 crore, he added.
An SER official, on condition of anonymity, stated that as per the existing government policy, as soon as an ROB gets over, the level crossings are closed.
It is not a local-level issue which can be sorted here. To make FOBs near all the sites would be possible if there is a policy level change at the higher levels, he added.