Shortage of staff, track maintenance machines continue to ail Indian Railways

Top railway officials from across the country have submitted to Railway Board a detailed list of issues turning out to be a big hurdle in ensuring passenger safety.
Indian Railways. (File | PTI)
Indian Railways. (File | PTI)

NEW DELHI: What ails Indian Railways? Top railway officials from across the country have submitted to Railway Board a detailed list of issues turning out to be a big hurdle in ensuring passenger safety and cutting down accidents.

The issues submitted by General Managers (GMS) of 17 zonal railways  range from cutting down on recruitment time for safety positions from 2 years to 6 months, shortage of track maintenance machines and non availability of time for blocks to carry maintenance of tracks.

A list of over 30 items has been prepared after recent derailment of Vasco-Da-Gama-Patna Express on November 24, killing three passengers.

General Managers across the board have expressed urgent need of filling up safety category vacancies. Atleast three GMs stated that the placement of indents for staff through Board leads to long delay. There is over 1 lakh vacancy at safety positions.

“GMs should be authorized to place indents directly on Railway Recruitment Boards. The vacancies in safety positions have increased since placements of indents in 2016 but the online system does not permit placement of additional indents,” said the GMs of Eastern Railway and South Western Railway zones.    

Another area of concern was the long duration of recruitment process and demand to bring it down to 6 months from present 2 years since submission of application. Based on the submissions, the Railway Board has issued directions to respective departments to submit proposals to fix it by December 20. 

“Many candidates get alternate jobs, leading to poor materialization of indents. Within on-line tests, the process should be expedited,” said GM Northeast Frontier Railway zone.       

The overall block availability for track machines to carry maintenance work is reported to be reduced in eight railway zones and they have been directed to immediately improve upon the blocks. The Utkal Express derailment in August this year, killing 23 passengers, was result of maintenance work carried without official traffic blockade. 

“Nearly 50 per cent main turnouts on Indian Railways are overdue deep screening. As turnouts are subjected to higher dynamic forces, and are more vulnerable from safety point of view, deep screening of turnouts should be liquidated on priority,” said the directions issued to GMs.

It was also reported that overall block availability for Ballast Cleaning Machines (BCMs) over Indian Railway is only about 54 hours per month as against stipulated 100 hours and a need was felt to improve the arrears of deep screening.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com