The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will seek government approval for more than 3.3 billion baht in funding to install safety barriers at railway crossings nationwide after several tragic accidents.
Pornsutti Thongsad, chief of the SRT's bureau attached to the governor, said the financial plan would be sent to Transport Minister Prajin Juntong.
Mr Pornsutti said Gen Prajin had ordered safety measures to be stepped up and equipment to be installed within two years.
Many railway crossings have been informally established by locals to use as shortcuts, but many don't have measures to prevent accidents.
Under the plan, the crossings will be provided with motion sensor lights, worth 1.4 million baht each. The total cost of the project would be 753.3 million.
No automatic gates will be installed at small crossings, but a total of 2.58 billion baht will be dedicated to automatic gates at larger crossings, priced at about 4 million baht per crossing.
There are a total of 775 large crossings that require the installation of automatic gates. He said 130 have been completed.
The remaining 645 crossings are pending equipment installation due to budget constraints.
Under the original plan, 645 intersections would not be equipped with gates until 2016, he said.
However, due to rising road accidents at the crossings, the SRT would speed up their installation.
On Monday Mr Pornsutti led a team to inspect crossings in Maha Chai, Samut Sakhon, where local administrative bodies have installed manual barriers to prevent accidents.
Bang Nam Jued tambon administration organisation chairman Suban Manawittayakarn said there were four railway crossings in the sub-district where he had invested in safety barriers.
He also employed workers at the crossings to operate the gates when trains came along.
Mr Suban referrred to an accident at a junction in Phetchaburi last week when a passenger train on the Bangkok-Hua Hin route smashed into a car.
The crash resulted in two deaths.
Locals filed a petition to the Administrative Court to request the SRT install an automatic gate at the crossing.
SRT route and schedule supervisor Thanongsak Pongprasert said the SRT faced budget restrictions which had prevented faster action in the past.
"The annual budgets received are insufficient to cover all intersections, so we must ask for help from local administrative bodies to take care of the unofficial crossings," he said.
Mr Thanongsak referred to a regulation which says automobile drivers must reduce their speed when approaching a railway crossing.