NEW DELHI: Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday directed all zones to put in place a CCTV system with necessary recording facilities at all level crossings (LCs) on the railway network. This comes a day after a passenger train collided with a school van at a level crossing in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district, killing at least three children and injuring several others.The minister also ordered to lower the traffic volume threshold for interlocking works by half to 10,000 so that more LCs can be equipped with interlocking facilities.In another development, the railway ministry has directed all zones to put in place a process of prior permission from the departments concerned for the operation of engineering trolleys on railway tracks for their maintenance. This came almost a fortnight after an unfortunate incident in Bihar’s Katihar district, which saw the Awadh Assam Express colliding with a maintenance trolley, killing a railway worker and injuring three others.Sharing details of the directives issued after a review meeting, officials said Vaishnaw took up critical safety issues, with a decision being made to implement 11 key measures regarding LCs.An official said that from now onwards, all LC gates will be monitored by a CCTV system so that incidents like the one at Cuddalore can be averted. Regular power to the CCTV system will be ensured through solar panels, battery backup, and UPS, in addition to a commercial supply.He added that the minister has directed the fast-tracking of the interlocking of LC gates, with railway PSUs being roped in for the work.Sources pointed out that at level crossings where the interlocking system is not available, the green signal to a train is given by the station master at present. Because of this, the train can start moving without the LC gate being closed. “So, there is a risk of accidents. Once the interlocking system is in place, the train will not get the green signal unless the LC gate is closed,” an official said.He added that all gates with traffic volume above 10,000 will be interlocked irrespective of a plan for railway over- and under-bridges (ROBs, RUBs). It was decided that for non-interlocked gates, a daily random check of voice recordings will be done, at least two gates per day per division. “Divisional railway managers (DRMs) will confirm that the voice logger system is functional at all non-interlocked gates,” the official said.The decisions made at the review meeting also included standardisation and correction of speed breakers and installation of warning boards at all level crossing gates.