Amid the outbreak of covid pandemic, the Central railway has operated about 600 “Shramik Special” trains carrying more than 8.5 lakh migrants to their respective destinations since May 1. Railway officials have attributed this achievement to the gigantic exercise in planning, maintaining and running trains during COVID19.
This comes after MHA's order regarding movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places by special trains.
“On request of the state government, Shramik special train operation was started from various stations of five divisions of CR. The formation of rakes, sanitization, maintenance of those rakes, fulfilling the requirement of staff, provision of food, coordination with state governments, safe, punctual train operation & overall mission “Back Home” was a big challenge under COVID19 circumstances,” said Shivaji Sutar, CPRO, CR.
These Shramik Specials were run for many states: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The mission “Back Home” operation or train operation for sending the migrant workers back to their home involved direct train services from Central Railway to states of Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur for the first time.
“Sixty-six percent of the total trains operated by Mumbai Division, followed Pune division (23 percent) and 11 percent by Solapur, Bhusawal & Nagpur divisions. As maximum trains were run by Mumbai division, the other four divisions put in their might by maintaining 8-9 rakes at their depots on days when demand peaked,” he said.
With staff living scattered in Mumbai, some in containment zones, the onus of train operation squarely rested on the shoulders of the limited staff & officers, who never left their guard down and worked tirelessly till dawn on most days to ensure everything was going well.
Amid lockdown, Central Railway staff rose to the occasion. Many staff i.e. corona warriors reached the offices by starting early in the morning by walk and other means and made it possible to run the Shramik specials.
For all the officers and staff of Central Railway, this kind of exposure was a new learning curve, which few manuals will teach and a truly satisfying experience.
Planning, Maintenance, Running of Shramik Specials
Beneath the veneer of an orderly train schedule were the "behind the scene working". The operation staff for overall coordination, Mechanical staff who maintained the coaches, Electrical staff for maintaining the locomotives, running the trains, maintaining the electrics at stations and in coaches, Security i.e. RPF for maintaining queue formation, thermal screening of passengers, Commercial staff for liaison with the State Government authorities, allotment of seats, arranging meals & co-ordination with IRCTC, Engineering, S&T & OHE staff for maintaining the assets like track, signals, OHE , Medical staff/Doctors to attend emergency cases / give medical aid etc, were coordinated with clock like precision work. A dedicated team of officers in co-ordination with state government authorities made the gigantic task easy and simple.
War room behind the scene
The control office works 24 X 7 for monitoring, planning of trains; officers’ physical availability at stations, control offices and round the clock on tele-conference for coordinated efforts to run Shramik Specials safely, punctual & as per the demand of state government.
