Railway starts taking safety precautions for summer

BHUBANESWAR: East Coast Railway (ECoR) zone spread over Odisha and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has started taking preventive measures to tackle upcoming summer. A special 10-day drive has been launched to check safety measures before the arrival of hot summer.

Umesh Singh, general manager of the ECoR, has asked its officials to keep strict vigil on regular track maintenance and proper check of electrical equipment. He directed them to keep trains, stations, coaching depots and other railway properties safe from fire accidents.

All three divisions of ECoR have been advised to ensure maximum state of alertness during summer. Certain areas of Railways like parcel offices, stockyard, stores depots, coach maintenance depot and scrap yard inside carriage repair workshop are prone to fire accidents. Discarded lubricant boxes, rubber items and combustible materials could be prone to fire. Officials are asked to keep strict vigil on these areas to avoid possible fire mishaps.

Civil engineers have been advised to keep a hawk’s eye on track maintenance as wide variation in day and night time temperature sometimes causes cracks on tracks. Trackmen are told to remain alert all the time over this problem, said a senior railway officer.

ECoR has also directed the security wing of the railways to prevent people carrying combustible materials in the trains. They should also penalize the people for smoking inside the coaches or stations. Precautions will be taken in the pantry cars of the trains to avoid any fire accident, said the officer.

The engineers and electrical department have been asked to keep a strict watch on loose electrical fittings and wires. If needed, the old fittings and wires should be changed.

The ECoR is also getting ready to ensure availability of water especially drinking water in trains and stations during summer. “Drinking water booths at stations will be checked frequently. Quality of drinking water will be regularly monitored. Pipes, taps, tube wells at stations will checked during the special drive. The catering units will be asked to stock adequate quantity of approved and authorized water bottles,” said a spokesperson of the ECoR.