One year of COVID-19 lockdown: All in a day’s work for the Railways’ staff

The COVID19 pandemic saw railway workshops in Mumbai turn to manufacturing PPE kits and sanitisers Railway community halls were also turned into quarantine centresThe Western Railways has manufactured 3900 PPE suits till dateThe railways had been shut intermittently during the World Wars monsoon terror attacks and completely for some time during the 1974 rail strike However the COVID19 lockdown was historic ldquoThe lockdown and railway shut down came into effect from the midnight of March 22 2020 No passenger trains were run only fullfledged freight and limited military movement trains were running Strikes bandhs train serial blasts terror attacks and technical failures have affected trains but it has mostly been localised and if they did affect the rail services nationally it was for a limited period never at this scalerdquo a senior official saidThe Jagjivan Ram Hospital Dr BR Ambedkar Hospital divisional railway hospitals at Kalyan Bhusaval Solapur Nagpur and Pune have been attending to COVID patients In Maharashtra a 641bed capacity COVID Care Centre and 1040bed capacity quarantine care centre have been developed for railway employees Central Railway workshops in Maharashtra manufactured about 37319 litres of sanitiser more than 27 lakh face masks and 28269 PPE suitsOfficials said Western Railway teams prepared PPE developed by railway workshops and cleared by the Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO and 3900 have been produced till date In addition 29000 litres hand sanitiser and 161 lakh inhouse reusable masks were prepared On May 7 2020 the Ministry of Railways announced that it had converted 5231 railway coaches to COVID Care Centers for very mild casesTrain guard family made masksVishal Kalge a train guard on Miraj division of Central Railway has made masks with his family for colleagues and has supplied 3500 ldquoI found commerciallysold masks expensive I realised I had to do something myself I turned to my family and they promptly agreed to help I bought the right cloth sanitised it and we stitched masks My mother wife and children help merdquo Kalge saidlsquoWork is always priorityrsquoManisha MhaskeGhorpade was one among the many motor persons who worked in the lockdown When suburban trains resumed in June 2020 for essential workers Mhaske began work in full safety gear face shield and mask driving a CSMTPanvel train She said ldquoWork is always a priority and one cannot abandon the job in difficult timesrdquoCR kitchen kingKhushroo Poacha a superintendent with the Central Railway in Nagpur received a pat on his back after CM Uddhav Thackeray called him up He collected food and aid material worth over R40 lakh which benefited over 6000 families and two tonnes of rice to feed more than 60000 poor through a website and WhatsApp ldquoI was stunned I just kept saying lsquothank you thank yoursquo to the CMrdquo he saidSupply chain kept aliveDuring the lockdown the food and essential supply chain was kept alive by Central Railway V M Rajan Chief Yard Master of Kalyan Goods yard ran 311 goods trains by arranging goods drivers guards and other staff ldquoThese are crucial times and we must do whatever is possible to keep the essential trains running to keep the supply chain alive These trains really are lifelinesrdquo Rajan saidA gatemanrsquos job is challengingRajniranjan Choubey a gateman is of the silent warriors who played an important role for the smooth running of trains In the lockdown he did not abandon his gate hut at the Titwala level crossing ldquoWe are trained and aware of the rules and duties during unusual occurrences A gatemanrsquos job is challenging My family stood by me rock solidrdquo he said