The Indian Railways is in the process of devising a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for operating trains immediately after an earthquake. The Railway Board has written to General Managers of Zonal Railways to share their views on the safe operation of trains after the occurrence of an earthquake.
Almost a year after the issue was flagged by Northern Railway Principal Chief Engineer C. P. Gupta, who pointed out that the Railways had not issued any guidelines or rules for running trains after the occurrence of an earthquake, the top management has decided to formulate an SOP, sources in the Southern Railway said here on Wednesday.
The General & Subsidiary Rules (G&SR), the manual which is the fulcrum of passenger/freight train operations over Indian Railways, had not stipulated any action regarding running of trains after an earthquake.
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No guidelines
Even the Indian Railways Permanent Way Manual and the Indian Railways Bridge Manual, which govern the creation and management of civil engineering infrastructure, had no mention of any inspection to be conducted after an earthquake as a mechanism to ensure that no damage had occurred to track, bridges, etc, the official said.
Though the Research Designs & Standards Organisation, the R&D arm of the Railways, in its guidelines on the Seismic Design of Railway Bridges had suggested post earthquake operations and inspections, it was not incorporated as a rule in the G&SR book.
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According to a senior Railways officer, 58.6% of the country’s land mass was prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity. Earthquakes are included in the list of natural disasters affecting train operations like floods, landslides, tsunami, snow avalanches, etc.
Multiple effects
“Some parts of the railway network like the Rajkot Division in Western Railway have some contingency plans to handle an earthquake. The Rajkot Division covers a large part of coastal Gujarat and lies on the Type IV and Type III earthquake prone zone parameter. Earthquakes can have multiple effects on train operations since they can trigger tsunami, flooding, landslides, etc…so it is absolutely essential to have an SOP for safe train operations after the occurrence of an earthquake,” the officer, who preferred not to be quoted, said.
Railway officials say that though earthquakes are among the natural calamities included in the Disaster Management scheme for planning train operations, specific rules were not framed in the G&SR book that governed the operation of passenger and freight trains.
However, for metro trains, issued with the approval of the Indian Railways, it has been made clear that in the event of an earthquake, “the Traffic Controller shall instruct all trains to stop immediately and after earthquake has subsided, Traffic Controller may instruct each stranded train operation in Restricted Manual Mode at walking speed after examining that the track is safe for train movement and free from obstruction up to the next station…”
The Railway Board in its letter issued on January 12, 2022 said it was advisable to have safety provisions in the G&SR to guide actions post an earthquake. It asked General Managers of Zonal Railways to share their views and practices relating to the operations of trains after an earthquake.