Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-09-27

Ensuring safety at unguarded railway crossings

- There are about 676 unguarded railway gates within Sri Lanka and even though there should be 2028 gate keepers, consisting of 03 persons per gate, only 1953 gate keepers are currently employed to assure the safety of pedestrians, passengers and vehicles. An honorary service is rendered by them for a monthly allowance of only Rs.7,500/-, which consists of Rs.250 per day, without any right to salaries, wages and other privileges to which government servants are entitled. Considering the requests made by the said gate keepers to the effect that this allowance is inadequate, the proposals made by Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, as per the recommendations of the Officials' Committee appointed to submit recommendations to resolve this problem, that the allowance of Rs.22,500/- presently allocated per a month for 03 gate keepers, should be granted not as an allowance made for a person but as an allowance made per a gate, and that a suitable internal arrangement should be formulated to distribute that allowance among the railway gate keepers involved per gate and to install railway gates with 'Bell and Light' systems in relevant places, as a long-term solution, giving priority to places where most accidents occur and unsafe locations with bends, were approved by the Cabinet.