Jamshedpur: South Eastern Railway (SER) has started erecting metal and net-type steel barriers and reinforced foundations on the Asanboni-Jharsuguda section under Chakradharpur division to prevent cattle and elephants from being run over by trains, officials said.“Fencing on either side of the tracks will be done over a length of 270 km at a cost of Rs 193 crore,” said senior divisional commercial manager, Chakradharpur, Aditya Choudhary.“We will be erecting barriers to stop elephants on a 15-km stretch soon. Then, we will follow it up with the cattle barrier,” Choudhary said.Separate stretches totalling 15 km in length in the Rourkela-Nuagaon, Dangoaposi-Rourkela, Jaraikela-Mahadevsal and Bagdihi-Dhutra sections have been identified for building steel-wire fenceing to avert elephant-train collision, officials said. The cattle barrier will be conventional metal beam fencing while the elephant fencing has been planned as per the design mandated by the forest department.Regional chief conservator of forests (RCCF) of Kolhan division, Smita Pankaj, said that a joint survey was conducted by the Chakradharpur division and forest department in Nov-Dec 2025 to identify the vulnerable sections for erecting elephant barriers and underpasses.“Railways will take up the construction work with its funds. Our role was to identify the locations,” Smita said.The joint survey has identified 11 spots for building the dedicated elephant underpasses across nine sections under the railway division.“Dimensions of the underpasses generally follow the recommendations of the Wildlife Institute of India (WWI). Normally, the height of an elephant underpass ranges from 6- 8 metres and a width of 10-12 metres,” said Saba Alam, deputy conservator of forests-cum-field director, Elephant Project, Dalma. Three head of cattle were run over by a passenger train on the outskirts of Jamshedpur, on Wednesday.Nine elephants have died between 2018 and 2024 in Kolhan division in five separate collisions with trains.