Picture only for representation.

MUMBAI: More than 56% of the accidental deaths on suburban railway sections last year was due to illegal line crossing, but the Central Railway seems to have no money for constructing boundary walls , the Bombay high court was informed on Friday.

While CR has not approved proposals worth Rs 16.29 crore to construct boundary walls, Cidco has refused to undertake the repairing of boundary walls between Vashi and Belapur tracks as the railways owes them Rs 96.40 crore in arrears, the HC was informed.

A division bench of Justices Vidyasagar Kanade and Pukhraj Bora asked the railways to respond to the issue. The court also asked CR about its proposal to set up more emergency medical rooms at railway stations that had witnessed 50 or more accidents last year. The bench was hearing a PIL filed by activist Samir Zaveri seeking measures to reduce death on tracks and providing emergency medical aid to victims.

Of the 3,202 deaths on Central and Western Railways last year, 1,798 of them happened when the train hit the victims while they were crossing tracks illegally.

Advocate Arif Doctor, counsel for Zaveri, pointed to documents obtained under the RTI Act which showed CR had not approved a proposal of the Mumbai division to sanction Rs 16.29 crore for constructing and repairing boundary walls at various locations. Further, a letter written by Cidco says the agency could not undertake the work of repairing boundary walls between Vashi and Belapur stations as the railways owes it over Rs 94.4 crore as of November 2016 for earlier work.

Advocate Suresh Kumar, counsel for railways, sought time to look into the issue. The advocate further confirmed that the CR was considering a proposal to set up EMRs at stations which had witnessed 50 or more accidents in 2016.

The court has scheduled the matter for hearing on March 11, 2017.

