All rail level crossings to be Manned by 2012

KOCHI: Kerala will become the first state to have all the railway level crossings manned by December 2012, three years ahead of the deadline set to accomplish the feat by the Railways for the entire country. The Railways on Saturday flagged off a campaign as a part of increasing safety at railway level crossings.Out of the 560 level crossings in the state,  413 are in Trivandrum division, out of which 298 are manned and 113 unmanned, Rajiv Dutt Sharma, Manager, Trivandrum divsion, told reporters, before flagging of the final phase of the ‘Rath Yatra’ to Guruvayur from Kanyakumari.The deadline set by the Railways to make all the railway level crossings manned is December 2015. The Railways will make all the infrastructure ready by June 2012 and will use  280 ex-servicemen to take care of the unmanned level crossings under the Trivandrum division, he told reporters here.There is only one unmanned level crossing in the Palakkad division which would be manned by next month.The Railways is also in the process of introducing interlocking facility in the manned level crossings by which the trains would get signals only if the level crossings are closed. The unmanned level crossing will also get the interlocking facility after they are made manned.Alappuzha topped with having maximum 21 unmanned crossings and most of them were unviable.Stating that the Railways had to unnecessarily incur an expenditure of `35 lakh for setting up a level crossing each, he said that the expenses could have been reduced if several avoidable level crossings in the state were closed. The Railways had offered to construct a road from such level crossings to link with the nearest level crossings to make good for the closed crossings. This was objected by the district administrations in Kerala while Tamil Nadu had agreed to close nine level crossings.Documentary films will be showed during the final phase of the ‘Safety Awareness Rath  Yathra’ on a mini bus from Ernakulam to Guruvayoor.Pamphlets would be distributed to people at different places.