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New Delhi: The employees from the Signalling and Telecommunications department of the Indian Railways have expressed deep reservations over the safety of train operations and passengers as there is no painting work being done for gears, boxes, and circuits which often result in little mishaps.
Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union General Secretary, Alok Chandra Prakash stated concerns to ETV Bharat by saying that “The surrender of painter posts by the Railways has significantly increased operational problems such as locating particular points, wires and gears which consumes excessive time attending to technical issues.” These painters utilized to maintain indications by painting change in point or circuit after the work which benefited the S&T department.
Alok Chandra remarked, “Now staff is expected to use a marker or pen which burns out or vanishes and therefore the staff is forced into a position where they struggle to work.” In his words, all of these problems cause needlessly frequent little disturbances.
Union of S&T Maintainers Talks About The Bahanaga Incident
In the words of the Indian Railways S&T Maintainers Union, workers understand the significance of such tasks for safety reasons. ""We have understood the importance of painting work at site, particularly after the primary incident that occurred at Bahanaga Bazar Balasore." "In the same way, there are several other important tasks which only a carpenter can perform." "Recreation of the post of painter and carpenter in at least one SSE/Unit throughout Railways in S&T Department is a must.” ลดความยาวQUOTE.”
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has claimed that this year the railway has increased its spending on safety which lead to the allocation of ₹1.16 Lakh Crore towards enhancement of the safety of Indian Railways via multiple projects recently.
According to Prabodh Kumar Srivastava, an IRSTMU National Treasurer, to ETV Bharat, “The position of painters is very important in the railways, which has been surrendered by the railways. These painters do nomenclature in Circuit boxes, Cable, terminations boxes, and Route Relay Interlocking (RRI) systems as some of their skills.”
According to Navin Kumar, an IRSTMU National President, “Beside painters, Diesel mechanics and Carpenters are also aids of the S&T department but even these posts were surrendered by the railway.”
Reduction In Train Mishaps
Due to various measures taken in the past, the number of railway accidents has dropped significantly when compared to earlier years. According to Indian Railways, together with the train collision incidents during the years 2004-14 which totaled at 1711 (with average of 171 per year) has drastically reduced to 678 instances from 2014-24 (with average of 68 per year) as reported in 2024.
Safety Measures
By June 30, 2024, 6,589 stations had been installed with Interlocking Systems Controlled Centrally. This step was taken towards safeguarding from accidents stemming from human errors. As a safety precaution, Level Crossing Gate Interlocking has been done on 11,048 LC gates. Also, by June 30, 2024, the Complete Track Circuiting of stations which increases safety through verification of track occupancy using electrical means had been put in place at 6,609 stations.
