The COVID-19 lockdown has come as an opportunity for Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) to complete or advance the work of maintaining its assets.
Officials of different divisions of NFR have been concentrating on maintenance work as there has been no movement of passenger trains since March 25. The pressure on the railway system has been less although the railway zone, India’s easternmost, has been operating freight trains and the shorter parcel trains carrying non-heavy duty items.
“We have unloaded 11,000 cubic metres of ballast (crushed stones that form the trackbed) at different locations. A total of 14 km of new rails are replacing old ones while testing to detect invisible rail fractures was carried out on a 619 km stretch during the period to increase the safety of trains,” NFR spokesperson Subhanan Chanda said.
Other activities included track tamping — ensuring even settling of tracks with machines — for 635 km and ballast dressing for a 60 km section.
“The progress achieved by various track machines has been about 25% higher than during the normal course. Although essential, getting a break from traffic is difficult during normal times as most parts of the NFR have been overburdened,” Mr. Chanda said.
Besides, NFR distributed about 35,00 masks, 20,000 soaps and about 1,200 litres of hand sanitisers to its personnel.