Speaking to newsmen yesterday at Miryalguda railway station in the early hours after visiting the site of Friday's rail-bus collision which claimed 19 lives and left several others injured, the minister sought the cooperation of state governments in manning the gates.

``A capital expenditure of Rs 7 lakh and recurring expenditure of Rs 2 lakh per annum is required to man each gate. There are 25,000 unmanned gates in the entire country and this requires huge investment,'' the minister pointed out.

Relaxing the guidelines for manning level crossings, Nitish Kumar announced that the one at Bothalapalem would be immediately manned. The guidelines stipulated that there should be 10,000 train vehicular units to man a gate while the one at Bothalapalem has only 900 units. A high-level committee would be constituted to study the existing guidelinesand suggest changes.

Nitish Kumar, who called on the injured at the Miryalguda government hospital, described the mishap as unfortunate and said that the families of victims would be provided assistance from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

The minister initially said that the guidelines did not permit payment of ex-gratia as the dead were not travelling in train and the mishap took place because of the negligence of the bus driver. After the press conference was over, he called newsmen again and said that relief would be given from the Prime Minister's fund on ``humanitarian grounds as majority of the victims were tribals''.

`Bus driver should be hanged'

HYDERABAD: The driver of the bus, whose utter negligence resulted in the death of 19 persons including many school children in the rail-bus collision, ``should be hanged'', Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has said.

``The railway personnel are not at fault. The accident took place totally on account of the bus driver's callousness,'' theminister remarked angrily. Nitish Kumar pointed out that construction of speed breakers near railway crossings was mandatory but they did not exist at Bothalapalem crossing. It would be better if the State government consulted the railways while laying roads cutting across tracks.