Audit on Tuticorin-Maniyachi railway section

A high-level team of Railway officials, led by the Chief Safety Officer of Southern Railway, M.C. Murali, conducted an audit on Tuticorin-Maniyachi section on 18th Sept., to ascertain that safety norms were followed according to the stipulated guidelines.

Interacting with the officials, Mr. Murali reiterated the need to phase out the unmanned railway level-crossings to reduce accidents.

“We have set plans to remove about 100 of the total 1,200 unmanned crossings situated under the jurisdiction of Southern Railway by either constructing road over-bridges or limited use subways (meant for light motor vehicles and two-wheelers) at those spots, during this fiscal,” he said.

According to him, a total of 51 ‘limited use subways’ would be established by the Southern Railway during the current financial year. He said that the railway administration has been operating a state-of-the-art ‘accident relief machinery’.

“We are periodically conducting mock drills to check the efficiency of the machinery,” he added.

He said that once the gauge conversions were over, more trains are bound to come to Tuticorin.

D.K. Nayak, Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM), Southern Railway (Madurai), said that the division was exploring the possibility of setting up a ‘24-bogey’ pit lane in Tuticorin.

The capacity of the present pit lane here having a capacity to hold 18 bogies, is now being upgraded to hold 21 bogies.

The Chief Track Engineer, P.K. Mishra, the Chief Signal and Telecommunications Engineer, T. Yadaiah, the Chief Electrical Service Engineer, R.P. Udayakumar, the Divisional Engineer, Robert Rajasekaran, and the Chief Rolling Stock Engineer, Kabir Ahmed, all of Southern Railways, were present during the inspection.