The Railways has set a target of erecting 3,300 km of walls by December 2019 to fence off its tracks along the golden quadrilateral and its diagonals in a bid to check encroachment and trespassing, a senior official said on Tuesday.
The entire process will cost the national transporter around Rs 3,000 crore. It will also enable railways to run trains at a speed of 160 kmph on these tracks once they are fenced, which is a must for such speeds.
Walls will be erected along a 967-kilometer stretch between Delhi and Mumbai Central stations, the Delhi-Howrah section and a 901-km route on the golden quadrilateral and its diagonals. It also includes a 43-km stretch in the Delhi-NCR region.
"We have decided to build these walls in vulnerable areas primarily to prevent encroachment, movement of cattle and trespassing. For example, hitting a heavy cattle can lead to derailments and we want to avoid that," said Vishwesh Chaube, Member, Engineering, Railway Board.
Zones have been asked to identify such routes and walls may also erected to block narrow passages near major stations used by people to reach the platform, Chaube said, though he refused to give a timeline for the project.
However, a senior official involved in the project said that while the walls along a 800-km stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai-Calcutta-Chennai golden quadrilateral is likely to be completed by June 2019, a 2,500-km stretch will be covered by December 2019.
Sources in the ministry said that railway is planning to construct around 100-125 km of 27-metre high boundary walls every year as it prepares to bump up the speeds of its trains.