Sliding boom barriers are being installed at level crossing gates in the Sealdah division, the railways said a day after the accident at a level crossing between Khardah and Sodepur stations, on the northern fringes of the city.
On Sunday night, two cars had snuck under the closing Level Crossing Gate No. 9 from the side of BT Road but could not pass through as the gate on the opposite side had come down, said railway officials.
The Lalgola-Kolkata Hazarduari Express, which was approaching Khardah station around 8.40pm hit one of the cars, causing it to slam into the other. The collision damaged the level crossing gate on one side. The bars at the gates, which operate vertically, are synchronised with the automatic signalling system. The damaged bars stalled train services on the line for over 30 minutes on Sunday.
The new sliding barriers close horizontally. They will not prevent such accidents but will act as back-up. “They will act as back-up. Also synchronised with the signalling system, they will save time lost in repairing the damaged bars and restoring train services,” said an official.
A statement released by the spokesperson for Eastern Railway said: “When a level crossing boom is hit by a vehicle, it becomes non-functional as the interlocking and signalling system gets affected, causing detention of both rail and road traffic. This new initiative, led by the signal and telecom department, prevents undue detention of trains by allowing continued operation of the level crossing gates while repairs to the main boom are underway.”
On Sunday night, the Hazarduari Express was decelerating when the accident happened. It stopped seconds after the collision. The train left the spot around 9.20pm.
“A total of 37 level crossing gates in the Sealdah division have been provided with sliding boom barriers between April and June,” said a railway official.
CCTV footage of Sunday’s accident showed the two cars stuck just off the tracks. The train hits the rear bumper of a Mahindra Scorpio, which then hits the smaller car.The second car then hits the boom.
“Many cars try to sneak through level crossing gates even after they start coming down. From the time the alarm is sounded, it takes a little less than a minute for the gates on both sides to come down,” said a railway official in the Sealdah division.
Saugata Roy, the MP of Dum Dum, the constituency where the accident spot is located, blamed the railways for the crash. “The signalling system was faulty. How could the train pass at full speed with cars on the tracks? It could have led to a bigger accident. It is a failure of the railway system,” said Roy.
Railway officials denied the charge and said the two cars had violated a redsignal. “The signal had turned red for road traffic the moment the gates started coming down and the alarm was sounded. The signal was green for the train. The train was travelling at 30-40kmph. Had the speed been more, the damage to the car would have been much more,” said one of them.
The railway authorities have filed an FIR in connection with the vehiclesbreaching the level crossing barriers.
“We are mulling an overbridge at the spot. The railways will bear the cost. We will soon discuss the matter with the state government,” the Eastern Railway spokesperson said.
