Minister of Transport Dr. Bandula Gunawardana said that measures will be taken to secure over 300 unprotected railway crossings across Sri Lanka within two months.
Speaking in the Parliament on Wednesday (24), Minister Gunawardana pointed out that the number of completely unprotected railway crossings in Sri Lanka is 330. “There are a total of 1,177 railway crossings in the country. Among them, 438 level crossings have been protected with colour lights and 434 with bells and lights.”
However, he further emphasised that 100 more railway crossings will be completely secured during the renovation activities of the Northern Railway Line.
“The rest is 330 crossings,” he said, adding that “there are four totally unprotected level crossings on the Coastal Line, 30 on the Kelani Valley line, 24 on the Puttalam Line and 101 on the Main Line”.
Minister Gunawardana also expressed that the Ministry of Transport has mentioned that bamboo gates will be provided to secure those unprotected crossings. “However, this is not the response. I carried out a personal study into this issue. A number of lives have been lost due to unprotected railway crossings recently,” he noted.
Gunawardana, who added that there has been a huge cost of around Rs. 4 million per railway crossing to establish colour lights or gates, claimed that the relevant cost is estimated to be around Rs. 8 million at present.
Furthermore, he stated that the State Engineering Corporation, together with another industrialist, has looked into the matter on his request, and presented a project to complete the construction of all 330 unprotected railway crossings in two months. “The cost will be around Rs. 1 million per level crossing,” he added.
However, he highlighted that neither the Treasury nor the Railways Department can afford that cost at the moment, adding that therefore, the National Council for Road Safety will provide Rs. 500,000 per railway crossing, while the remaining cost needs to be obtained from the private sector. “Therefore, I invite private sector entrepreneurs to provide us with the remaining amount as a social service. We will provide the opportunity to publish their commercials,” he said.
The Minister stated that they would be able to deploy individuals for the operation of the rail gates from the Multi-Purpose Development Task Force.
“Thereby, we expect to complete this project with the assistance of both the State and private sectors within two months,” Gunawardana added.