Bhubaneswar: June 9: To prevent travellers about approaching train at the unmanned level crossing (LCs), the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has started appointing local youths as ‘Gate Mitras’ functioning under its zone. Railway Ministry sources said, the Centre has issued 4,326 ‘Gate Mitras’ post for the railway zones across the country including 202 posts for East Coast Railway. 74 posts for Khurdha railway division, 79 for Sambalpur and 49 for Walter division has been sanctioned by ECoR. Till now 135 persons has been deployed on the zone and the process regarding fill up of the remaining posts will be started soon, said railway official. The gate counsellor, i.e., the “Gate Mitras” will be appointed on temporary basis till the unmanned level crossings are eliminated. The zone has started deploying 135 persons within a few days. “We have started the process to fill up the rest 67 posts very soon,” said a senior railway official. Local youth would be appointed as the counsellor (Gate Mitras) by Safety department of ECoR through contractors or agency, said railway sources.
Besides counselling, the ‘Gate Mitras’ will distribute safety instruction pamphlets to the road users crossing the level crossing gates and will be provided with flags to alert users.
To perform their duty in well manner ECoR will provide training to ‘Gate Mitras’. They will be taught about section 131 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and regarding precaution to be taken at unmanned Level Crossing. All the unmanned LCs will be removed within three years, sources of Railway Ministry said.
