Serious damage to railway services due to floods in the past two years has prompted the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) to deploy over 1,600 personnel with gadgets to maintain safety of its 6,400-km tracks in Northeast, West Bengal and Bihar during the monsoon.
Patrol-men equipped with GPS trackers, fog detonators, walky-talky and other gears would carry out patrol to avert any damage to railway tracks due to the Monsoon rain.
Chief public relations officer of NFR headquarters based here, Pranav Jyoti Sharma told DH that a detailed strategy has been worked out this time as railway services get affected due to landslides, breaching of embankment, washing of bridges and others.
“Monsoon season is challenging for the NFR as the railway lines are spread over wide range of terrain consisting alluvial plains and mountainous regions which are not very stable. To make things more difficult, Southwest Monsoon brings 90% of the annual rainfall (varying from 2,000 to 5,000 mm) to the region during April to late October every year. The challenges come in the form of landslides, breaching of embankments, washout of bridges beside others. So a detailed strategy has been adopted to ensure that the tracks are protected and kept in good condition for safety of passengers,” Sharma said.
Railway tracks in Northeast, West Bengal and parts of Bihar comes under the NFR.
Railway services between the Northeast and rest of the country remained suspended for days after the serious floods in 2017 and 2018 breached tracks and bridges.
“A total of 813 parties of patrol-men, each consisting of two persons have been deployed to secure the tracks round the clock. The patrolling will continue till October 15 or further as rains/weather forecast warrants,” Sharma said in a statement.
These patrolmen would be equipped with equipment like GPS tracker, luminous jacket, raincoat and separate water-proof trouser, safety helmet with attachable miners light, safety shoes and others.
“During night time, the entire track is being patrolled twice from 8 pm to 11:30 pm and again from 12:30 am to 4 am. Every patrol party has been provided one walky-talky and mobile phone to communicate with the nearest station about any eventuality posing threat for train movement. They also carry fog detonators to alert train drivers. These patrolmen are monitored by five divisional control offices with the help of GPS tracker,” he said.