Jammu: The Northern Railway’s Jammu Division on Wednesday commenced a two-day Inter-Divisional Safety Audit aimed at evaluating safety performance and identifying areas for improvement, an official said.
The audit is led by Principal Chief Safety Commissioner, North Eastern Railway (NER), Neeraj Gupta and includes senior officers in senior administrative grade from five key departments of Railways — Traffic, Signal, Electrical, Engineering and Mechanical.
Jammu Divisional Railway Manager Vivek Kumar said such inter-divisional safety audits conducted at regular intervals not only ensure compliance with safety standards laid down by the Railway Board, but also increase awareness among employees towards safety.
The technical suggestions and recommendations given by the audit team after inspection will be implemented by the division administration on top priority, so that rail operations can be made even safer, smoother and more reliable in future, he said.
He said Jammu Division is always committed to providing safe and punctual service to passengers and freight customers.
The officials said the main objective of the audit is to conduct an in-depth evaluation of all safety procedures, equipment and standards related to rail operations at the ground level, identify potential deficiencies and ensure necessary corrective steps are taken to remove them, so that the Railways’ commitment to “zero accident” can be realized.
Besides a detailed inspection of Jammu Railway Station premises and the adjoining station yard, the audit focuses on the condition of platforms, foot-over bridges constructed for passenger movement, waiting halls, toilets and other passenger amenities, along with the signalling and telecommunication system, track fittings, and the functioning of points and crossings will be examined minutely, they said.
The officials said the audit team will visit the running lobby, where it will establish direct dialogue with Loco pilots and guards to review their working conditions, rest facilities, compliance with safety protocols and preparedness to deal with emergency situations.
They will inspect various yards of Jammu Division, which will include a detailed observation of loading-unloading of goods trains, shunting of wagons, lighting arrangements in the yard, availability of fire safety equipment and safety rules followed by staff, the officials said.
The team will also conduct a structural safety audit of various important railway bridges falling under Jammu Division, in which the strength of bridges, track fittings and maintenance standards will be examined minutely, the officials said.
