Two CR employees run over by trains

Despite Central Railway's drives against trespassing and track crossings, two of its own employees paid heavily for crossing railway tracks. One person died after being run over by a local train at Sion, the other was hit by a goods train at Titwala and is battling for his life at the Kalyan Railway Hospital.

M K Anand (55), a Loco Power Controller at the DRM's office, was run over at Sion station around noon, when he was on his way to CST while P D Jadhav, a Central Railway guard, was hit by a goods train at Titwala at 3.30 pm yesterday. He was due to retire in June.

"We have been undertaking extensive awareness campaigns against track crossing and trespassing. Frequent announcements are made and passengers are advised to use the Foot Over Bridges (FOB) for travelling. Advertisements are issued and frequent drives are also conducted. The incident about the Railway employees was unfortunate," said Shrinivas Mudgerikar.

He added, "The dangers of crossing railway tracks is part of our employees' training and refresher course." The railways will now construct a wall to restrict access to the tracks adjoining the fifth and sixth line. This would ensure there are few track crossing and run over deaths.

"We have started constructing the walls. Cement concrete walls with a wire mesh above them are being constructed. There were breaches when we had the stonewalls earlier," said Mudgerikar.