NFR carrying out maintenance work during lockdown period

Guwahati, Apr 25 () The Northeast Frontier Railway(NFR) is using the lockdown period to carry out maintenancework even as the freight and parcel carrying trains arerunning regularly with essentials items 24X7, an officialsaid.

With the passenger trains having stopped plyingthroughout the country for more than a month, differentdivisions of NFR are busy converting the lockdown period intoan opportunity to speed up maintenance work, NFR chief publicrelations officer (CPRO) Subhanan Chanda, said on Saturday.

Although freight and parcel carrying trains arerunning regularly with essentials items 24x7, Chanda saidthere are ample time gaps to take up track and othermaintenance work.

Undertaking such work is difficult due to very heavymovement of trains in normal time, and it requires trafficblocks or mega blocks by stopping movements of all trains todo such work, Chanda said.

These blocks are normally taken on days with lessertrain movements to lessen the adverse effects on the passengerfor ensuring safe and timely train running, the CPRO said.

As most parts of the entire railway systems arealready overburdened with more than 100 per cent utilisation,getting such block is difficult although essential, he added.

Since the lockdown started from March 25, theengineering department of NFR took the opportunity to unloadballast in different locations of track to ensure adequateavailability of ballast for safer train movement.

A total of 14 km of new rails were unloaded indifferent locations for replacement of old rail panels, Chandasaid. USFD testing which is done to detect invisible railfractures were carried out in 619 km section during thisperiod to enhance the safety of train movement by many folds.

Since the lockdown started, the entire fleet of trackmachines was put into full utilisation with machines used fortrack tamping in 635 km of track.

Dynamic Track Stabiliser machines were used in 165 kmof track, while ballast was dressed in 60 km section, machinepacking of 372 turnouts was done.

In addition, regular oiling and greasing of track andinspection including day and night patrolling are beingconducted on a daily basis.

The CPRO further said several other pending works werealso completed by taking advantage of the lockdown.

The progress achieved by track machines during thisone-month lockdown is approximately 20 to 25 per cent higherthan the progress achieved during the normal course despitethe works being carried out with the minimum number of staffand labourers maintaining all norms of social distancing andsanitisation of workplaces, Chanda said.

Apart from all these, about 35,000 masks weredistributed to trackmen performing duties on tracks, 20,000pieces of soaps and about 1,200 litres of hand sanitizers werealso provided to trackmen during this period to ensure theirsafety. ESBRG RG