VIJAYAWADA: As part of the Railway Board’s ongoing Immersive Drive, South Coast Railway (SCoR) Principal Chief Electrical Engineer Tapan Kumar Sinha conducted a comprehensive safety and maintenance inspection of the Traction Distribution (TrD) Depot in Vijayawada and the Krishna Canal Traction Substation (TSS).
The inspection focused on strengthening traction power infrastructure, evaluating failure patterns of TrD components, and assessing staff preparedness.
At the Vijayawada Depot, Sinha inaugurated key utility equipment, including a maiden 12-tonne mobile crane for handling heavy overhead equipment materials such as catenary drums and portals, and a new battery capacitance testing kit to safely extend the service life of 40 AH, 150 AH and 200 AH battery sets.
He also reviewed operational standards and testing practices, including a live hydraulic load demonstration on insulators, and presented a cash award of Rs 10,000 to the TrD Vijayawada team for exemplary maintenance and safety records.
At the Krishna Canal Substation, which feeds critical rail sectors including the Vijayawada Yard, Vijayawada–Gannavaram and Vijayawada–Rayanapadu routes, the inspection centred on preventive maintenance and condition-based monitoring. Sinha inaugurated a mobile Current Transformer/Potential Transformer (CT/PT) analyser to detect equipment defects early and reviewed the deployment of Vacuum Bottle Test Kits for circuit breaker reliability.
Accompanied by Senior DEE (TrD) Ch Dinesh Reddy, ADEE JVB Chandra Rao, and RVNL Joint General Manager GHN Chowdary, Sinha also led a tree plantation drive on the substation premises. A safety seminar was conducted for staff, and compliance with the Traction Distribution Management System (TDMS) was reviewed.