Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today said that the railways have been asked to remove unmanned level crossings within a year, instead of the initial goal of doing it in three years. Railway Minister was speaking at an event in IIM-Calcutta today. He said around 5,000 unmanned level crossings, which account for nearly 30-35 per cent of total rail accidents, need to be removed by the railways in the next one year. <br/><br/>He also advocated the use of technology to reduce manual maintenance of rail tracks, as it entails huge manpower. The minister said that the RailTel corporation has already prepared the optic fibre network for improving communication. <br/>