Breath analyzer for railway staff on duty

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager Ravinder Gupta here on Friday advised his senior colleagues to conduct breath analyzer tests earnestly and also conduct safety seminars regularly for the staff involved in train operations.

The Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) were especially urged to closely monitor the progress of work on elimination of the Unmanned Railway Level Crossings (UMLCs) as about 68 UMLC’s have been removed as against the target of 48, at a meeting held to have a comprehensive re-look of safety issues in the zone.

DRMs of all the six divisions on SCR - Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntur, Guntakal and Nanded attended the meeting through video conference at Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad.

He took stock of incidents, unsafe conditions (like rail breakages, weld failures, jerk messages, brake binding, smoke/fire, and overhead equipment failures), other irregularities etc.

SCR chief safety officer S.P Sahu made a power point presentation on safety in the presence of several senior officials drawn from the technical and commercial wings.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ravindra Gupta presented a cash award to deputy station superintendent of Donakonda station on Guntur division, Sk. Abdul Jabbar, for his devotion to duty in ensuring safety of train movement.

Mr. Jabbar while on duty on March 23 noticed a hot axle of a goods train and immediately stopped the train, thus averting any possible mishap.

Another cash award was given to T. Ratna Kumar, Gateman, working at Level Crossing Gate No. 319A on the Vijayawada Division for having heard an unusual sound when the Train No. 15905 Kanyakumari – Dibrugarh Vivek Express was passing by and duly informed to the officials concerned.

Later, it was found that a ‘Bolster Spring’ was missing on run and this was rectified.