Faulty wipers put loco pilots’ life at risk

Yogesh Tejwani| TNN | Updated: Jul 22, 2017, 

Bhopal: The much awaited rains in the state have left the loco-pilots of West Central Railway (WCR) worrying. Heavy downpour forces them to crane their necks outside the window to check the signals. Time and again they even have to clean the wind shields — hanging half outside to manage the task — all this because the wipers of most of the trains are faulty.

The West Central Railway Employees Union have already alerted the railway authorities demanding quick action to prevent any untoward accident, but little has been done so far.

T K Gautam, loco pilot of Shatabdi and express trains and West Central Railway Employees Union executive chairman said "Three days ago when I was on the way to Bhopal on the Rajdhani Express, I had to slow down the train and wash wind-shield due to dirt on it as the wiper was not functioning." He alleged that "I had sent a letter to senior DTRO before the monsoon season to get wipers repaired under pre-monsoon preparations that is done every year, but there were no preparations till now." He said "There are around 500 locos running in Bhopal division and wipers of 95% locos are not working. In such conditions, either a pilot has to look from the window to follow signals or wash the windshield with water bottles something usually seen in case of cars."

He claimed he had submitted complaints in writing to the office of senior DTRO. To this, senior DTRO replied he had forwarded application to shed officials directing them to change wipers, but no action was taken till now.

He said, "This monsoon, we will have to run by looking outside train and put life to risk." Senior DTRO DK Srivastava said, "Shed staff is discharging its duty of changing wipers properly. I had inspected the shed on Wednesday. During that time I saw wipers were being changed. If there is a problem with a particular loco, I have no idea about it. If such problem comes to our notice, we will get it resolved soon."