Summer or winter, the South Central Railway (SCR) has a standard set of operating procedures to check its thousands of miles of track. And so, the SCR is on a safety audit, more particularly for the winter.
On Monday, general manager Ravinder Gupta took up an intensive review of the safety procedures with his senior officers, starting the meeting with an expression of grief at Sunday’s train accident near Kanpur in which over 143 lives were lost. He advised the safety wing of the SCR to step up overall safety measures.
Mr. Gupta wanted officers to monitor safety across all parameters with a focus on keeping the rail network safe in tune with the requirements of various seasonal conditions.
He underscored the need for ‘zero tolerance’ towards accidents. Winter patrolling with ultrasonic flaw detectors (UFD) to detect rail/weld failure was introduced, apart from foot-plate inspections at night.
Rail grinding machines and improved rail fastenings were being used, and preventive steps were in place to keep the track safe in identified fracture-prone areas. Apart from scheduled inspections, periodic drives and surprise night inspections were being undertaken by divisional officials, Mr. Gupta said, in a press release.
Safety seminars and refresher courses were a regular affair, he said, adding that ambush checks were conducted to ensure that staff adhered to safety instructions and working rules, apart from mock drills to check readiness of relief trains in tune with the ‘Golden Hour’ concept.
