The need to legislate the course of action to be taken in the event of a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) disasters on railway premises was mooted at a high-level meeting of senior railway officials in Nainital last week.
The deliberations on disaster management also called for a strategy to handle disasters involving ammonia, LPG and naphtha, railway sources said on Thursday.
When it comes to major disasters, the Indian Railways follows a set of guidelines rolled out by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and depends on specialised forces like the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for immediate support. This is the first time that railway officials have called for the need to legislate the strategy to be adopted in the event of CBRN disasters.
The latest Disaster Management Plan of the Indian Railways says heightened vulnerability to disaster risks is not only related to expanding population, urbanisation and industrialisation, development within high-risk zones, environmental degradation and climate change but also to increase in terror attacks.
The NDMA guidelines on chemical disasters were “very relevant” as the railways transported a number of hazardous chemicals by trains.
These guidelines were directed more towards the prevention and mitigation of their effects, in the event of such disasters, than on rescue and relief operations afterwards.
The guidelines on nuclear and biological disasters also call for railways to take stipulated precautions in the transportation of radio-active substances and chemical (biological) items.
On the vulnerability to nuclear disasters, the r ailways called for identifying network close to a nuclear facility. However, it noted that the structural design of nuclear facilities ensured that even in the event of a physical attack, the structural barriers prevented the release of any radioactivity outside the plant area itself and hence the public were not likely to be exposed to any radiation.
Training for staff
Besides reviewing the training and preparedness of disaster management, the meeting of the top officials has now called for site sketches to be made immediately at all vulnerable sites and quarterly joint exercises with NDRF personnel.
The meeting also emphasised that all onboard staff such as Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs), Coach Attendants and OnBoard House Keeping Staff be trained in First Aid, handling of fire extinguishers and relief/rescue operations, the sources said.
“The meeting was called by the Railway Board and the proposals/suggestions would be considered for implementation after consultation and approval of the competent authority. The railways has neither the manpower nor infrastructure to tackle CBRN disasters. We are looking at a standard operating procedure involving relevant agencies to be set in motion in the event of such occurrences,” a railways official said.
