In keeping with its motto of “Zero Tolerance for Unsafe Practices” and as part of a month long safety awareness drive, Northern Railway held a Safety Seminar at National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri. The seminar was organised as per the directives of Minister for Railways, R.K. Kulshrestha, General Manager, Northern Railway and Ved Pal, Additional General Manager, inaugurated the seminar. V.K. Aggarwal, Additional Member, Electrical, Railway Board and K. Swaminathan, Additional Member, Mechanical, Railway Board were also present on the occasion. Niraj Kumar, Chief Safety Officer, Northern Railway delivered the key note address. A Nukkad Natak was also screened on the side-lines of the seminar on the subject of safety. An exhibition of mechanical and safety equipment was also held and demo was organised by all technical departments. Besides short films on level-crossings, signal passing at danger cases were also screened.
Stating that safety lies at the heart of all train operations, R.K. Kulshrestha averred that it is necessary that all those who are in frontline operations should not lose sight of the fact that negligence can be life-threatening too. He congratulated all the staff who has contributed to improved safety performance of Northern Railway. Training of all front-line staff in train operations, mechanical maintenance of machines and equipment, rolling stock, track personnel, electrical and signal maintainers shall be the principal focus of the zone. He also opined that stepping up of road safety works in lieu of level-crossings would not only improve safety record but add to operational flexibility.
The seminar talked segment-wise on the different aspects of the Railway systems that contribute to the smooth operations in train running. Participants deliberated on a broad range of safety issues including the topical concerns like prevention of accidents during foggy weather. Slide-shows on level-crossing were shown and case-studies were conducted by the all divisions of the Railway to identify unique problems with certain level-crossings. The discussions also highlighted how better designs and better systems viz. track structure, vantage point for location of gate-lodges at level-crossing, warning systems, better maintenance and inspection of level-crossing could contribute towards enhanced performance of the Railway and also aid in preventing accidents.