When the siren was sounded at 9 a.m., railwaymen at work in Madurai railway junction and in railway quarters knew that something was wrong.
It also meant that they need to rush to a breakdown special parked in the railway yard.
Within a few minutes, the breakdown special, with men and materials, moved towards Dindigul side. Only then the officials and men came to know about derailment of one of the coaches of a train at Koodal Nagar railway station.
This was part of a mock drill conducted by Madurai division of Southern Railway along with National Disaster Response Force.
“This is the first time we have the drill along with NDRF,” said Additional Divisional Railway Manager, P.V. Murali Krishna.
The NDRF men who rushed to the spot first set up their camps for communication and medical relief in no time. The quick deployment antenna was up and communication with outside world was established immediately.
“During disasters, the regular communication network often conks off. Hence, we set up our satellite-based communication network for making calls and sending mails,” the NDRF Assistant Commandant, Raajan Baalu, said.
As the news of ‘accident’ spread, more reinforcement came in the form of Railway Protection Force (RPF), ambulances and medical teams. Heads of all railway departments from commercial to engineering rushed to oversee the rescue operation.
After cordoning off the site, NDRF personnel got into swift action.
As the coach had fallen on to its side, they started cutting the cross rods on a window and making an opening on its roof, to bring out the injured at the earliest.
“We need to use only cold cutting machinery to prevent any fire as the paints are highly inflammable. Only in the worst case, we use other hot cutting tools too for immediate rescue,” Mr. Baalu said.
The NDRF men displayed the prowess of different kinds of drilling and cutting equipment and the swiftness in their deployment.
Even as the ‘rescue’ operation was on, an RPF staff kept talking over the public address system to the panicked passengers stuck inside the coach to keep calm and assured them of early ‘rescue’ and other medical care.
“We have got a hospital like facility on our train and you need not worry,” he said.
The rescued passengers were taken to the medical relief van where doctors and paramedical staff attended to them. The seriously injured were moved to nearby hospitals.
Simultaneously, helpline numbers were announced over the PA system and the details of injured made ready to be communicated to the anxious friends and family members. Alternative transportation arrangement too was made for the passengers to reach their destinations.
Senior Divisional Safety Officer, P. Balachandran, said that while the breakdown special was supposed to move within 20 minutes after the siren was sounded, on Friday, it moved within 14 minutes.
“This showed the state of preparedness by our railway men,” he said.
