In order to contain frequent cases of cattle hits that endanger train travel, Indian Railways will build newly-designed walls around tracks on the worst-affected sections of railway routes totalling 1,000 kilometres, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
“We are working seriously on the issue of building boundary walls. We are looking at two different designs. We have approved one, which is a sturdy wall, and over the next five to six months, we plan to build 1,000 km of such walls across sections to determine if the design works,” Vaishnaw said.
The issue came to light after the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Vande Bharat train needed a facelift barely days after its launch, prompting discussions on the safety of the train amid repeated cattle run over (CRO) cases. The nose panel of the trainset was broken on all the occasions, and had to be replaced with spare cones later.
