Railway to construct security fences at rail crossings to prevent stone-pelting, accidents

Initially, a 10 kilometres’ long security wall will be constructed around these hotspots in phase 1 of the project and funds have been made available for the same, according to railway authorities

PUNE: The Pune Central Railway will erect security walls on both sides of hotspots in rural parts of its jurisdiction to prevent instances of stone-pelting and accidents involving animals and human beings crossing or venturing onto the railway tracks. The Pune Central Railway comprises the Pune to Lonavala, Pune to Miraj and Pune to Daund routes, and the action comes in the wake of numerous accidents involving animals and human beings in the recent past and at least 30 instances of stone-pelting reported in the rural zone, especially near railway crossings, over the past one year.

The action comes in the wake of several instances of stone-pelting in the past. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

Initially, a 10 kilometres’ long security wall will be constructed around these hotspots in phase 1 of the project and funds have been made available for the same, according to railway authorities.

The action comes in the wake of several instances of stone-pelting in the past, the latest being a 13-year-old boy being seriously injured by a stone thrown at a running express train on January 10. Fortunately, immediate action by the railway administration saved the boy’s life while the accused was caught in five hours. The incident occurred in the Chennai Central-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express Train passing through the Pune section of the railway near Lonavala. The victim, Balaji, who was traveling by this train, was injured. Fifteen minutes after the train had left Pune station and was headed towards Mumbai, a stone hurled at the running train hit Balaji, who was sitting near the window, on his head, and he started bleeding profusely. Balaji’s mother, who was with him at the time of the incident, and Balaji did not know what to do. That’s when a co-passenger named Anand came forward and immediately contacted the railway helpline number 139 due to which Balaji was given emergency medical treatment and his life was saved.