NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday, the Indian Railways has set a goal to construct 1,000 km of boundary walls within the next six months in the worst-affected sections of its network in response to recent instances of cattle overrunning.

"We are taking the subject of constructing boundary walls seriously. We are considering two distinct designs. While we have approved one, a strong wall, we intend to construct 1,000 kilometres of such walls over the next five to six months to test the feasibility of the design, the Minister said.

Official statistics show that 4,000 trains have already been affected by run over livestock in 2022.

Conventional boundary barriers,  the minister said, would not be able to resolve the issue of runover livestock and would instead have an adverse effect on the local inhabitants. He did not, however, provide any other details regarding the wall's design or the materials that would be employed in its construction.

The recently launched Mumbai-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express train made headlines recently after three collisions with cattle in the first nine days of October caused damage to the train's "nose."

The Minister also unveiled a new clause that will give supervisory cadre in the Railways the opportunity to advance to pay grades comparable to Group A officers, which will be advantageous to workers who were experiencing employment stagnation. The 40,000 supervisor grade employees—whom the Minister referred to as "field level workers", including Station Masters, Traveling Ticket Examiners, and Traffic Inspectors will immediately profit from the change.

The Minister said that the decision will assist 40,000 supervisors, who will receive an average monthly income increase of Rs2,500 to Rs4,000 as a result of the career advancement prospects for supervisory Railway workers. The supervisory cadre of the Railways at Level 7 is stagnant, and there is little opportunity for their advancement, he said.

Since the past 16 years, there has been a long-standing demand for the supervisory cadre to be upgraded (2006). The only way to be selected for one of the 3,712 open positions was to take the Group "B" exam. 50% of those in non-functional grades will be promoted from Level 8 to Level 9 over the course of four years, he said.

This will result in an increase in the pay bill of Rs 10,000 crore, but the Minister said that the decision will be financially neutral because it will mostly be covered by savings the Railways has made on its diesel price.

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