The Union Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has announced that in the next financial year 970 number of ROB/RUBs and other safety-related works to eliminate 3438 level crossings at a total Railway expense of ₹ 6,581 crore have been sanctioned. This is more than 2600% higher than the sanctioned number of ROBs/RUBs during the current year and the highest ever in recent times. These projects cover almost all States of our Union. Presenting the Railway Budget for 2015-16 in Parliament today he informed the members that keeping in view the critical need to facilitate the construction of ROB/RUB’s, a web based application has been commissioned with user-friendly measures for online submission and approval of drawings within 60 days and an MOU has also been signed with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in this regard.

 The Railways Minister emphasized that the ultimate objective of the Railways is to eliminate all unmanned level crossings by construction of Road over Bridges (ROBs) and Road under Bridges (RUBs). In the short term, RDSO has been asked to develop a suitable device with reliable power supply system based on theft-proof panels/batteries in consultation with Indian Space Research Organization, using geo-spatial technology for providing audio-visual warning to road users at unmanned level crossings. Further, a radio based signal design project has been taken up with IIT Kanpur for warnings at unmanned level crossing.

Elimination of unmanned level crossings to be advanced through mass ROB/RUB construction and interagency technology partnerships. A major railway safety programme is sanctioned to eliminate unmanned level crossings by constructing ROBs and RUBs, with 970 projects to remove 3438 crossings next year. A web-based application will enable online submission and approval of drawings within sixty days and an MOU with the road-transport ministry will coordinate implementation. RDSO will develop a theft-resistant geo-spatial audio-visual warning device in consultation with ISRO, and a radio-based warning design project has been started with an engineering institute.