Railways to simulate accident to test preparedness of relief teams Premium

Senior officers from the Mechanical and Safety wings to participate in a five-day training programme on disaster management in Bengaluru, of which the mock drill is a component

In a first, the Indian Railways will assess the preparedness and performance of its accident relief teams by in real-time by simulating a major accident, involving derailment of coaches and huge casualties, in Bengaluru on November 24 . 

For this exercise, at least 10 condemned coaches have been ‘derailed’ and set up along the railway tracks in Bengaluru. Accident relief teams drawn from different zones across the railway network will participate in the drill to ‘rescue’ about 100 passengers and restore normal traffic.

The exercise is being organised by the Indian Railway Institute of Disaster Management (IRIDM), Bengaluru, in association with the National Institute of Disaster Management.

IRIDM Director V.V.S. Sreenivas has written to General Managers of Zonal Railways to depute senior officers from the Mechanical and Safety wings to a five-day training programme on disaster management to be held in Bengaluru from November 21. The drill will be part of that event. Experts from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Fire Service, Civil Defence etc., will be present for it.

The exercise, the scale of which is biggest in the Indian Railways, was necessitated by the increase in speed and load of trains in recent years. Realistic mock drills were essential to assess the efficacy of the Accident Relief Train (ART) team and ensure their preparedness in the event of major accidents, sources said.

According to a senior railway official, the initiative by the IRIDM comes days after the Ministry of Railways nominated it as the nodal agency for monitoring and assessment of mock drills. With fewer train accidents, and retirement of staff attached to ARTs, there was a need to sensitise the ART staff to the emerging challenges and also enhance their capacity by exposing them to technologies and advanced relief/rescue equipment.

The accident scene created by the IRIDM was along the Bengaluru-Mysore main line for full scale drill. However, sufficient distance was ensured from the mail line for safe movement of trains. About 40 senior railway officers, 50 officials in-charge of Accident Relief Trains from across Indian Railways and 75 disaster management experts drawn from different fields will participate in the programme.