Keeping in view passenger safety, the Bombay High Court asked the railway authorities to consider the possibility of putting up iron barricades to prevent commuters from crossing railway tracks at stations.
The high court made the suggestion after being informed that around 150 persons had died after being run over by trains while crossing the tracks in the last one year in the megapolis.
The advice to erect barricades was given by a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Swapna Joshi which was hearing a PIL filed by an activist highlighting rise in deaths of pedestrians who are forced to walk across the railway tracks at Sandhurst Road station after the old Hancock bridge was razed recently on the ground of being unsafe.
The court had earlier directed Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to seek the help and expertise of the Army “by way of last resort” for the construction of a temporary foot-over bridge (FoB) at the site of the demolished Hancock bridge near Sandhurst Road station.
This is because the Army had the expertise to construct FoB in a short duration, the high court had said.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, on behalf of the Army and Union government, told the court that the Army in Mumbai did not have technical expertise and hence it had written a letter to the Centre to offer this technology.
The response from the Centre is still awaited, he said. The judged then asked the Centre to take a quick decision on the issue.
The railway authorities said that around 150 people had died in the last one year after being run over by trains and hence they had put up barricades wherever possible to prevent people from crossing the tracks.
The bench asked the railways to consider the possibility of putting up iron barricades at all the stations in Mumbai to deter people from crossing the tracks.
The division bench also asked the railways to file a reply on the issue within four weeks.
Earlier, the superintending engineer, design circle (bridge), Public Works Department and the railway authorities had stated that it was not feasible to construct the temporary FoB.
