NEW DELHI, June 9: In a bid to ensure smooth and safe movement of trains, the Indian Railways has introduced a system of periodic counselling for Train Managers and Section Controllers on their duties and responsibilities.
The move comes about a week after the horrific accident involving three trains at Bahanaga Bazar railway station in Balasore Division of South Eastern Railway on June 2 which left 288 passengers dead and more than 900 injured.
While the exercise of providing counselling to Station Masters and Pointsmen is already in place in all zones, the Railway Board on June 8 wrote to General Managers of all Zonal Railways to treat the matter as “most urgent” and launch a regular programme for train running staff on “specific safety and movement issues.”
“As part of the programme, the safety advisory said a senior Train Manager and Section Controller with adequate knowledge of best practices in safe train operations be nominated as the resource person to train other colleagues for enhancing alertness and proper compliance to other responsibilities during normal and abnormal situations,” a railway officer said.
In a related development, the Madurai Division of the Southern Railway has banned the use of smart watches by Loco Running Staff while on duty. In a circular, the Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer Ravikumaran Nair said “the usage of smart watch by Loco Running Staff is banned on footplate with immediate effect.” In a recent check, he said a Loco Pilot on duty was frequently looking at his smart watch as it often turned on with alerts. This was observed when the train was being operated at a speed of 110 kmph.
“On further study of the features available on smart watches, it is understood that a smart watch can replicate the calls coming from the mobile phones connected through bluetooth. It is obvious that a Running Staff’s attention can be diverted by a smart watch if the same is connected from another mobile phone, which is hidden from him/her. The above situation is more dangerous,” the officer said.
The Ministry of Railways has already banned the use of mobile phones by Locopilots while on duty. Frequent checks are conducted to ensure that their mobile phones are in “switched off” mode. “Even keeping the mobile phone in mute is not allowed while on duty as it will divert the attention of the Loco Running Staff since their mind will be enthusiastic to check for any missed call…,” he said.
Meanwhile, even close to a week after the deadliest train accident in India in three decades, Odisha state government officials said 206 of 288 bodies have been identified, but correctly handing over the remaining 82 bodies is now a growing challenge. And it isn’t just the bodies still left at the morgue. In several cases, even those that have been sent to what the administration thought were the right families, have come under contest.
In another development, the Balasore district officials said sections of the Bahanaga high school, the first place where the bodies of the dead were stacked, may be demolished because children have raised apprehensions returning to that building when classes resume after the summer break. Balasore district collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde said, “I have met members of the school management committee, headmistress, other staff and local people. They want to demolish the old building and renovate it so that children do have any fear or apprehension to attend classes.”
(Manas Dasgupta)