The Eastern Railway on Monday announced that it would dismantle all its old metal water reservoirs present on platforms and station premises and replace those with reinforced cement concrete tanks.

In a statement, the Eastern Railway authorities said it would also demolish the concrete tanks aged over 60 years and replace those with RCC tanks built with modern technology.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of the December 13 tragedy at Burdwan railway station in which four persons were killed and many injured after a 133-year-old metal tank partially collapsed on a passenger waiting shed.

The accident raised questions over the lapses of the railways in maintaining such old structures and buildings.

“After the accident at Burdwan station, the railways decided to conduct a health audit of such tanks. The decision to demolish those tanks was taken to avoid any further incident like the one that happened in Burdwan,” said a source.

“The dismantling process (of those aged tanks) has already commenced and is expected to be completed within one year,” said Kausik Mitra, chief public relations officer of the Eastern Railway.

The Eastern Railway has 12 old water tanks on several platforms. Three such tanks are in the Howrah division and the Asansol and the Malda divisions have eight and one such tanks, respectively.

There are 48 such old tanks located on the station premises of Eastern Railway, including 14 in the Howrah division, 23 in the Asansol division, seven in the Sealdah division and four in the Malda division.

“All those will be dismantled in due course,” an official said.