Nail the rail gate calamities, Dullas!

900 unprotected level crossings in the country...

By Namini Wijedasa

(October 11, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I cannot understand how any transport minister can canvass for votes with his pants on when he has failed to have rail gates installed at unprotected crossings despite holding his portfolio for what seems like a lifetime. And, yes, I have to talk about this again because someone almost died even last week.

In principle, Dullas Alahapperuma is not a bad politician though he appears to have quietly slipped into the trap of enjoying his publicity a little too much. He is easily the only non-Rajapaksa political celebrity to be seen on television almost as frequently as the Rajapaksa celebrities. So, either TV likes Dullas a lot or Dullas likes TV a lot.

Nice man

Dullas is great with the press, still a gentleman and has the ability to enthuse people into working which is not particularly easy to do. In short, he is a nice person and a seemingly jolly good fellow.

“Nice” is a great qualification when a government wants you to spend a whole TWO years campaigning for this or that election. This country has had polls every few weeks since the beginning of last year — apparently because the government wants to concentrate on each of them, one delicious election at a time. It is difficult to abuse state resources in campaigning throughout nine provinces at the same time, no? It is so much easier to stagger the elections.

Starting with the Eastern province mini polls held in February 2008, therefore, we have been eating, drinking and vomiting elections and there is more to come next year. Dullas is trusted by the Rajapaksa administration and continues to campaign tirelessly for this deluge of elections that the public never asked for. Hold the damn things on a single day, for crying out loud, and leave us in peace.

But we digress. On the issue of absent rail gates, just being “nice” will not help. Even last week, a man was rendered unconscious when the Chilaw-bound train crashed into a van at an unprotected level crossing. Dullas was probably in Hambantota at the time — gazing admiringly at the many, many, many posters, cut-outs and banners of the president and his UPFA candidates that the police did not feel like tearing down.

Last week, however, we were given a different perspective on this business of unprotected crossings by former director general of railways, Lalithasiri Gunaruwan. He pointed out that it was not entirely Dullas’s fault. Pity, because we were just beginning to enjoy blaming Dullas, very nice fellow that he is.

Gunaruwan made it patently clear that everyone - including the public - has a role to playing in saving lives at level crossings. He insists that there is no such thing as a free lunch. If road users want rail gates installed and maintained, they must pay for it. There was no justification for expecting the railway department to do this.

“My point is that this is the responsibility of the crosser,” he insisted. “The rich man in the car is neither paying for his use of the road, nor is he paying for his use of the crossing.”

As much as we hate it, there is truth in this argument. Sri Lanka has been socialist for so long that people thing healthcare, education and many other things are “free”... free for all. But they aren’t. Whenever we get a free service, somebody else is paying for it. If vehicles need protection at level crossings and expect the railway department to do the job, the cost of this operation will be ultimately extracted from the train traveller. The train traveller neither uses these crossings nor is he at risk.

When the rail network was being laid out many years ago, signalled gates were installed at all level crossings and they are functioning even today. Back then, tracks were laid across roadways and not the other way around. Since then, however, hundreds of roads have been laid across rail tracks, usually with political patronage. Consequently, there are now 900 unprotected level crossings in the country — and the railway department is being asked to install and maintain gates when the roads constructed across the train tracks were not of their doing.

“Why should the poor rail passenger pay for something like this?” Gunaruwan said. “The expectation is that the railway department must take the burden of the crossings and maintain them for the benefit of rich vehicle users. That is a nutty idea and socially unjustifiable.”

Also, since the roads go across the tracks “belong” to different authorities in different parts of the country, a host of persons are responsible for putting up rail gates. And all of them - including provincial councils, local governments and, in some instances, the Road Development Authority — have failed.

Nothing done

The police are responsible under the Motor Traffic Ordinance for prosecuting all those agencies that do not install or maintain railway crossings. They must also take down unauthorised dwellings on either side of the track so that there is a clear view of the railway line. They haven’t done either. It is no wonder, then, that people perish every week.

What we need, obviously, is for someone to take charge - whether it is to tax the road user and to set up a dedicate fund for rail gates; or to discuss with all the agencies why putting up rail gates is so difficult; to ask the police why they have not acted against agencies that flout the law; or to coordinate with everyone responsible to put an end to these needless deaths.

And that’s why we are waiting for Dullas to get back from Hambantota. Maybe between the last election and the next one, he’ll have time to do something.

(The writer can be reached at nwijedasa@gmail.com)

-Sri Lanka Guardian