Cuttack, Sept. 4: Orissa High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the railways on a PIL seeking direction to man all level crossings in the state.

Eleven days ago, 14 persons were killed when a train rammed into a three-wheeler at an unmanned level crossing near Sambalpur.

Human rights activist advocate Prabir Das filed the PIL which also sought direction to the railways to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of each of the persons killed at the Khairapali unmanned level crossing on August 24.

The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice S.K. Mishra, before which the petition came up for admission today, issued notices to the chairman of the Railway Board, the general manager of East Coast Railways and divisional railway manager (Sambalpur).

The court expected the respondents to file their responses within two weeks.

There are over 600 unmanned railway level crossings in Odisha and 263 of them are in Sambalpur Railway Division, the petition stated, while seeking direction to the railways to either convert them into manned level crossings or construct road overbridges or underpasses at these spots to prevent accidents.

The petitioner cited a letter written by Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik asking Union railway minister Mukul Roy to make sure all level crossings were manned in the state.

The letter written on August 26 had expressed concern that the unmanned level crossings “have become potential death traps”. The chief minister said 20 persons had died in accidents at unmanned level crossings in East Coast Railways in the past year.