PART 2 | Authority of railway administration to execute all necessary work |
7.—(1) Subject to this Act, and subject also as regards the parties thereto to the provisions of any contract entered into between a railway administration and the owners or occupiers of, or other parties interested in, any lands taken or used for the purposes of a railway, and subject also in the case of a company to the provisions of any contract between the Minister and the company, the railway administration may, for the purpose of constructing the railway or the accommodation or other works connected therewith and notwithstanding anything in any other Act for the time being in force —| (a) | make or construct in, upon, across, under or over any lands or any streets, hills, valleys, roads, railways or tramways, or any rivers, canals, brooks, streams or other waters, or any drains, water pipes, gas pipes, electric wires or posts, such temporary or permanent inclined planes, arches, tunnels, culverts, embankments, aqueducts, bridges, roads, lines of railway, ways, passages, conduits, drains, piers, abutments, cuttings and fences as the railway administration thinks proper; | | (b) | alter the course of any rivers, brooks, streams or watercourses for the purpose of constructing and maintaining tunnels, bridges, passages or other works over or under them; and divert or alter, temporarily as well as permanently, the course of any rivers, brooks, streams or watercourses or any roads, streets or ways; or raise or sink the level thereof in order the more conveniently to carry them over or under or by the side of the railway as the railway administration thinks proper; | | (c) | make drains or conduits into, through or under any lands adjoining the railway for the purpose of conveying water from or to the railway; | | (d) | erect and construct such houses, warehouses, offices and other buildings and such yards, stations, wharves, engines, machinery, apparatus and other works and conveniences as the railway administration thinks proper; | | (e) | alter, repair or discontinue such buildings, works and conveniences as aforesaid or any of them and substitute others in their stead; and | | (f) | do all other acts necessary for making, maintaining, altering or repairing and using the railway. |
| (2) The exercise of the powers conferred on the railway administration by this section shall be subject to the control of the Minister. |
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| Creeks, bays, arms of the sea and navigable rivers |
8.—(1) A railway administration shall not construct on the shore of the sea or of any creek, bay, arm of the sea or navigable river communicating therewith, where and so far up the same as the tide flows and reflows, any work or construct any railway or bridge across any creek, bay, arm of the sea or navigable river where and so far up the same as the tide flows and reflows, without the previous consent in writing of the Minister, and then only according to such plan as the Minister approves.| (2) When such work, railway or bridge has been constructed the railway administration shall not alter or extend the same without obtaining, before making any such alteration or extension, the like consent and approval. |
| (3) If any such work, railway or bridge is commenced or completed contrary to this section, the Land Transport Authority, with the approval of the Minister, may abate and remove the same and may restore the site thereof to its former condition at the costs and charges of the railway administration. [4/99] |
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| Alteration of pipes, wires and drains |
9. A railway administration may, for the purpose of exercising the powers conferred upon it by this Act, alter the position of any pipe for the supply of gas, water or compressed air, or the position of any electric wire or of any drain not being a main drain:| (a) | when the railway administration desires to alter the position of any such pipe, wire or drain it shall give reasonable notice of its intention to do so and of the time at which it will begin to do so to the public authority or company having control over the pipe, wire or drain; or when the pipe, wire or drain is not under the control of a public authority or company to the person under whose control the pipe, wire or drain is; | | (b) | a public authority, company or person receiving notice under paragraph (a) may send a person to superintend the work, and the railway administration shall execute the work to the reasonable satisfaction of the person so sent and shall make arrangements for continuing during the execution of the work the supply of gas, water, compressed air or electricity or the maintenance of the drainage, as the case may be. |
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| Temporary entry upon land for repairing or preventing accident |
10.—(1) The Minister may authorise a railway administration, in case of any slip or other accident happening or being apprehended to any cutting, embankment or other work under the control of the railway administration, to enter upon any lands adjoining its railway for the purpose of repairing or preventing the accident and to do all such works as are necessary for the purpose.| (2) In case of necessity a railway administration may enter upon the lands and do the works aforesaid without having the previous sanction of the Minister, but in such a case shall, within 72 hours after such entry, make a report to the Minister, specifying the nature of the accident or apprehended accident and of the works necessary to be done. |
| (3) The power conferred on the railway administration by subsection (2) shall cease and determine if the Minister, after considering the report, considers that the exercise of the power is not necessary for the public safety. |
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| Compensation to be made for lands taken or injuriously affected |
11.—(1) A railway administration shall do as little damage as possible in the exercise of the powers conferred by sections 7, 9 and 10, and compensation shall be paid for any damage caused by the exercise thereof.| (2) An action shall not lie to recover such compensation, but in case of dispute the amount thereof shall, on application to a Collector of Land Revenue, be determined and paid in accordance as far as may be with the procedure prescribed by sections 10 to 15 and 19 to 40 of the Land Acquisition Act 1966 and section 53 of that Act shall apply to the award of compensation. |
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| Purchase of land and compensation by agreement |
| 12. Nothing in this Act shall prevent the acquisition of lands for the purposes of a railway by agreement between the Government or the company, as the case may be, and the owners of such lands, or the settling by agreement of the amount of compensation to be paid in respect of lands injuriously affected by the exercise of the powers conferred by this Act. |
13.—(1) Every railway administration shall make and maintain the following works for the accommodation of the owners and occupiers of lands adjoining the railway:| (a) | such and so many convenient crossings, bridges, arches, culverts and passages over, under or by the sides of or leading to or from the railway, as are in the opinion of the Minister necessary for the purpose of making good any interruptions caused by the railway to the use of the lands through which the railway is made; | | (b) | all necessary arches, tunnels, culverts, drains, watercourses or other passages over or under or by the sides of the railway of such dimensions as will, in the opinion of the Minister, be sufficient at all times to convey water as freely from or to the lands lying near or by the railway as before the making of the railway or as nearly so as may be. |
| (2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the works specified in subsection (1)(a) and (b) shall be made during or immediately after the laying out or formation of the railway over the lands traversed thereby, and in such manner as to cause as little damage or inconvenience as possible to persons interested in the lands or affected by the works. |
(3) Subsections (1) and (2) shall be subject to the following provisos:| (a) | a railway administration shall not be required to make any accommodation works in such a manner as would prevent or obstruct the working or using of the railway, or to make any accommodation works with respect to which the owners and occupiers of the land have agreed to receive and have been paid compensation in consideration of their not requiring the works to be made; | | (b) | subject to the provisions of this Act, a railway administration shall not be compelled to defray the cost of executing any further or additional accommodation works for the use of the owners or occupiers of the lands after the expiration of 10 years from the date on which the railway passing through the lands was first opened for public traffic; | | (c) | where a railway administration has provided suitable accommodation for the crossing of a road or stream, and the road or stream is afterwards diverted by the act or neglect of the person having the control thereof, the railway administration shall not be compelled to provide other accommodation for the crossing of the road or stream. |
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| (4) The Minister may appoint a time for the commencement of any work to be executed under subsection (1), and if for 14 days next after that time the railway administration fails to commence the work, or having commenced it fails to proceed diligently to execute it in a sufficient manner, the Minister may execute it and recover from the railway administration the cost incurred by him in the execution thereof. |
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| Power for owner, occupier or local authority to cause additional accommodation works to be made |
| 14. If an owner or occupier of any land affected by any railway considers the works made under section 13 to be insufficient for the commodious use of the land, or if the Land Transport Authority desires to construct a public road or other work across, under or over the railway, he may at any time require the railway administration to make at his expense such further accommodation works as he thinks necessary and are agreed to by the railway administration or as, in case of difference of opinion, are authorised by the Minister. [4/99] |
| Fences, screens, gates and bars |
15.—(1) The Minister may require that within a time to be specified in the requisition or within such further time as he appoints in this behalf —| (a) | boundary marks or fences shall be provided or renewed by the railway administration for the railway or any part thereof and for roads constructed in connection therewith; | | (b) | any works in the nature of a screen near to or adjoining the side of any public road constructed before the making of the railway shall be provided or renewed by the railway administration for the purpose of preventing danger to passengers on the road by reason of horses or other animals being frightened by the sight or noise of the rolling stock moving on the railway; | | (c) | suitable gates, chains, bars, stiles or handrails shall be erected or renewed by the railway administration at places where the railway crosses a public road on the level; | | (d) | persons shall be employed by the railway administration to open and shut such gates, chains or bars. |
| (2) Any railway company which fails to comply with any requisition made under this section shall forfeit to the Government a sum of $100 for every day after the first during which such default continues. |
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16.—(1) Where the railway administration has constructed the railway across a public road on the level, the Minister may at any time, if it appears to him necessary for the public safety, require the railway administration within such time as he thinks fit to carry the road either under or over the railway by means of a bridge or arch with convenient ascents and descents and other convenient approaches instead of crossing the road on the level, or to execute such other works as in the circumstances of the case appear to the Minister to be best adapted for removing or diminishing the danger arising from the level crossing.| (2) The Minister may require as a condition of making a requisition under subsection (1) that the Land Transport Authority shall undertake to pay the whole of the cost to the railway administration of complying with the requisition or such portion of the cost as the Minister thinks just. [4/99] |
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| Level crossings over public carriageways |
17.—(1) Where a railway crosses any public carriage road on a level, the railway administration shall erect and at all times maintain good and sufficient gates across the railway on each side of such road where the road communicates with the railway, and shall employ proper persons to open and shut such gates.| (2) Such gates shall be kept constantly closed across such railway except when engines or carriages passing along the railway have occasion to cross such road, and the person entrusted with the care of the gates shall cause the gates to be closed, as soon as the engines or carriages have passed through the gates, under penalty of a sum not exceeding $50 for every default therein. |
| (3) The Minister may in any case order that any of such gates may be kept closed against the road instead of against the railway. |
| (4) The Minister may impose any conditions with regard to such order. |
| (5) Any railway company which fails to erect or maintain sufficient gates in accordance with this section at any level crossing, or fails to employ a proper person to open and shut such gates shall forfeit to the Government a sum of $100 for every day during which such default continues. |
| (6) (a) The Minister may, subject to such conditions as he thinks fit to impose, declare that subsections (1) and (2) shall not apply to such crossings as are specified in the declaration and thereupon the railway administration shall be relieved of the obligations under those subsections in respect of the crossings. Such declaration shall be published in the Gazette. |
| (b) Where any such declaration has been made the railway administration shall erect warning boards alongside of the public carriage road and whistle signals upon the railway at suitable distances from such level crossings, and the driver of every locomotive engine shall sound the whistle of his engine in accordance with the signals before the engine crosses the road. |
| (c) The railway administration shall not be liable for death or injury caused to any person or for damage to any property by the passage of any locomotive engine or any other rolling stock attached thereto across the public carriage road at such level crossings unless it is proved that the driver of the locomotive engine did not sound the whistle of his engine in accordance with the signals. |
| (d) For the purposes of this subsection, “locomotive engine” includes any vehicle used upon the railway which is drawn or propelled by any motive power. |
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| Level crossings over public roads other than carriageways |
18.—(1) If a railway crosses any highway other than a public carriageway on the level, the railway administration shall make where necessary, and at all times maintain, convenient ascents and descents and other convenient approaches with handrails or other fences, and, if the highway is a footway, good and sufficient gates or stiles on each side of the railway where the highway communicates therewith.| (2) The manager shall be judge of the necessity in the case of a railway administered by the Government, and the Land Transport Authority in the case of a railway administered by a company. [4/99] |
| (3) Any railway company which fails to comply with this section shall forfeit to the Government a sum of $100 for every day during which the default continues. |
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| Removal of trees dangerous to or obstructing the working of a railway |
19.—(1) In either of the following cases:| (a) | where there is danger that a tree standing near a railway may fall on the railway so as to obstruct traffic; | | (b) | when a tree obstructs the view of any fixed signal, |
| the railway administration may, with the permission of any Magistrate’s Court, fell the tree or deal with it in such other manner as will, in the opinion of the railway administration, avert the danger or remove the obstruction, as the case may be. |
| (2) In case of emergency the power mentioned in subsection (1) may be exercised by the railway administration without the permission of a Magistrate’s Court. |
| (3) Where a tree felled or otherwise dealt with under subsection (1) or (2) was in existence before the railway was constructed or the signal was fixed, any Magistrate’s Court may, upon the application of the persons interested in the tree, award to those persons such compensation as it thinks reasonable. |
| (4) Such an award, subject to an appeal to the General Division of the High Court, shall be final. [40/2019] |
| (5) Except as provided in subsection (3), a civil court shall not entertain a suit to recover compensation for any tree felled or otherwise dealt with under this section. |
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| Notice to be given by owner or occupier of land felling or clearing any trees or jungle adjacent to railway |
20.—(1) In the event of the owner or the occupier of any land felling or clearing any trees or jungle adjacent to the railway or to any telegraphs or telephones erected thereon, the owner or occupier shall give to the railway administration 7 days’ previous notice in writing of his intention to do so and shall take all such reasonable precautions as the railway administration requires for the protection of the railway or of any telegraphs or telephones erected thereon.| (2) In the event of any such owner or occupier causing damage to the railway or to any telegraphs or telephones erected thereon, the amount of any such damage shall, in default of agreement, be recoverable in a summary manner before a Magistrate’s Court. |
| (3) If any such claim exceeds $500 proceedings shall be taken before the General Division of the High Court. [40/2019] |
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