Employees working in field units of Central Railway’s (CR) Nagpur Division have sough parity with Ministerial staff since the office of Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) was shut due to surge in COVID-19 cases in city. The staff working in Ajni Loco Shed, Electric Train Lighting, Depots of various railway branches have sought relief during the current period of stress. The closure of DRM office is now extended till April 30, the State Government has also issued new directive limiting attendance of staff in offices. Compared to offices where otherwise also staff was working in rotation shifts, in field the employees work shoulder to shoulder as maintaining social distance is next to impossible. Given the high viral load due to surfacing of double mutant of COVID-19, the positivity rate in city has risen to almost 30 per cent. Taking a cue and to ensure staff is not infected, offices of DRM that of CR and South East Central Railway (SECR) was closed and staff was directed to work from home.

 

The staff in field working in sheds, workshops and depots also have sought similar relief saying they too are working under fear. The current atmosphere in not very conducive for working in such closed environment in such large numbers. They said for example at Ajni Electric Shed, about 500 to 600 technicians, supervisors are daily reporting to work and carrying out various routine maintenance works. These works if skipped for a while would not cause any major problem or disrupt the Indian Railway’s schedule. In fact, its far more dangerous to work in such large numbers at one place when the viral load in city is all time high. Also given the frightening projection of exponential rise in number of positive patient, it makes sense to save the lives of railway employees. The lesser the employees on field, the lesser load on administration that is under tremendous pressure to ensure safety of the staff as the health machinery is overburdened due to surge in new COVID-19 positive cases.

 

At Shed, Periodic Overhaul (POH) of electric engines are carried out and these are routine jobs that can be deferred for some days. Another major area of crowding in track maintenance where hundreds of track maintainers are daily pressed to work in on regular maintenance jobs. Seniors in the field said though a rotational system and only those required for any on field emergency should be called for duty. This would ensure that maximum staff is under rest and their energies are conserved. Similarly, each of the family is also can take care of family members who might be down with COVID-19, which otherwise is not possible.

 

Same case is pleaded by employees in TRD and Electric Train Lighting, Carriage & Wagon Depots saying now the number of trains running are getting reduced due to poor occupancy and hence division bosses should avoid compulsory shifts. All these units see over a dozen persons working in close proximity which in current conditions is not very advisable. The field units Managers need to take a decision and ensure that the staff remains at arm length from the COVID-19 and in second wave the transmission rate is quite faster. They say that these workers thought at rest would be at beck and call in case there is urgent work or any emergency. Since Ministerial staff and officers have been advised to stay at home owing to surge in cases, why can’t the field staffers, who are presently only engaged in scheduled work, given a few days of rest.

 

 

 

 

As the second wave of COVID-19 ravages the nation, Indian Railways is seeing rapid decline in the response to its current services, particular on the popular Western route. Owing to poor occupancy, Central Railway has said, it is temporarily cancelling some long distance trains. Earlier, five pairs, some originating from Nagpur and some passing trains, were cancelled as travellers are limiting their travel. The trains that are now cancelled are 02113 Pune-Nagpur Tri-weekly Special from April 28 to May 10 & 02114 Nagpur-Pune Tri-weekly Special from April 27 to April 9. Train No. 02189 Mumbai-Nagpur Special from April 28 to May 11 & 02190 Nagpur-Mumbai Special from April 27 to May 10. Similarly, Train No. 01404 Kolhapur-Nagpur, bi-weekly will also remain canceled between April 26 and May 10 and its pair 01403 Nagpur-Kolhapur from April 27 till May 11. Train No. 02041 Pune-Nagpur, a weekly service is also suspended from April 29 to May 13 and 02402 Nagpur-Pune from April 30 to May 14. One more train on the circuit, 02240 Pune-Ajni, another weekly, is discontinued between May 1 to 15 and the pair 02239 Ajni-Pune from May 2 to 16. Also, 02117 Pune-Amravati, a weekly service would not be available from April 28 to May 12 and 02118 Amravati-Pune from April 29 to May 13.

 

Another popular train, 02111 Mumbai-Amravati Special is also cancelled from April 28 to May 11 & 02112 Amravati-Mumbai Special from April 27 to May 10. All these trains were quite popular and during peak period of summer it was difficult to get confirmed travel tickets. Now with surge in COVID-19 positive cases, people are advised to avoid train travel or for that matter travellers preferred to travel by private vehicles. There is high risk of contracting virus as one cannot have privacy in the train. Hence there is heightened fear among citizens who are avoiding train travel that were running empty. After going through the bookings of previous runs and glance at future bookings, CR authorities have decided to temporarily suspend runs of these erstwhile popular trains. There is pressure to run additional services on Mumbai-Howrah and to various Eastern and Northern Indian cities ex-Mumbai and these rakes could be deployed there.

 

There was time when all trains running on Nagpur-Pune-Nagpur circuit use to run jam packed as such was the demand. These trains were in addition to several private and state run buses plying on the route. But with both Pune and Nagpur accounting for substantial number of COVID-19 positive patients, travel is now the last option for anyone. Also as the IT sector, colleges are shut the working as well as student population are at home, either working or studying.