Railways asks 30,000 trackmen to resume duties to spruce up safety

NEW DELHI: To spruce up the safety on the railway network through manual patrolling, Indian Railways has instructed 30,000 trackmen, who were earlier posted at the residences of rail officials in different zones and divisions, to resume their duties.

"All 30,000 trackmen who were posted at the residents of officials will now be back maintaining patrolling rail tracks. Almost 7000 of these trackmen have already reported back to work in last two days," a top rail ministry official said.

In a meeting with rail board last week, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal instructed that all the protocols that railway board members get while visiting zones should be done away with and the human resource available should instead be used in safety works instead of manning the offices and houses of top officials.

The minister has also told his top officials to travel in general classes once every month to know what passengers feel about services.

"The saloon culture of Indian Railway officials kept them away from knowing what passengers felt about services. All of that needs to be changed," the official added.