Waltair Railway Division conducts mock rescue drill in Visakhapatnam

Waltair Railway Division organized a real-time relief and rescue operations mock drill on Tuesday at Simhachalam Station Yard, Visakhapatnam. This event took place from 9:15 am to 12:30 pm. Under the able guidance of the Divisional Railway Manager, Anup Satpathy, the Safety Department led by Sakya Acharya, and the Sr. Divisional Safety Officer, the mock drill operation was conducted on a real-time basis. 

As part of the drill, two coaches of a pilgrim special were derailed at the Simhachalam Yard and rescue operations were carried out with men and material. More than 200 railway employees, from various Departments like operations, commercial, mechanical, medical, security, signal & telecom, civil engineering, traction distribution, electrical and personnel, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and civil administration, instantaneously rose to the situation for rescuing the passengers in the affected coaches. They carried out relief operations and ultimately restored the normalcy of the track for the swift movement of traffic. ADRM (infra) Sudhir Kumar Gupta, and other branch officers, took part in the mock drill.

The National Disaster Response Force participated in the mock drill with their latest pieces of equipment. Their participation helped the frontline service personnel to develop the acumen to tackle similar situations. Under the command of Inspector/10th NDRF command, Probin Phukan, a fleet of 26 NDRF personnel was involved in the operation. The Railway Protection Special Force, besides the RPF, State Police, Civil Defense personnel, also joined in the rescue and relief operations.

The Waltair Railway Division mock drill that happened in Visakhapatnam is an exercise to check the preparedness of the Railway personnel to meet the eventualities. It also enables them to rescue passengers with simultaneous relief operations.  The exercise is a replica of the actual operation at the time of such incidents.