With no quarantine facilities at stations or precautionary measures, Indian Railways could well prove to be a sitting duck if the swine flu virus spreads

Indian airports have pulled up their socks in the country's war against swine flu. But Indian Railways could become the Achilles' heel.

The biggest mass transport network in the country has not yet received a directive from the Railway Ministry to take any precautionary action for detection or transfer of flu patients travelling by trains.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had issued guidelines to various ministries to be prepared as this influenza could affect people on a large scale. Issuing similar guidelines to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Surface Transport/Shipping, the NDMA had suggested certain SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) in case of an epidemic.

Lt Gen (Retd) JR Bhardwaj, member NDMA, said, "As the flu threat is escalating, all ministries need to formulate a plan of action to tackle the situation. Even the Railway Ministry should be on its guard. Even if one patient is allowed to travel undetected, the speed with which the infection can spread across the country through the railway network is unimaginable. One should not wait for that situation to arrive."

There are no quarantine facilities at stations or even preliminary arrangements to isolate a suspected case. "A general red alert has been sounded in the railways but there are no directives from director general of health after that," said a railway official, wishing anonymity.

Employees at risk

Not only passengers, the large number of railway employees too can be infected if the network is attacked. And if too many of them are infected, the entire network can collapse. "The biggest issue of concern in this case is that the flu can affect both passengers and personnel alike. There can be a situation where the railway infrastructure may come to a standstill," said the official.

Despite these loopholes, the railways maintain it is ready to face the flu. "We are ready for any situation," said AS Negi, spokesperson, Northern Railway. Rail minister Mamata Banerjee was not available for comments.

Trains ferry nearly 1.5 crore people daily in India and about 80,000 employees are involved in the process. Thirty per cent of the country's population will be affected if the flu takes this route.

Ready for what?
>>No quarantine facility
>>NDMA has issued precautionary guidelines like the use of clinical facemasks, but rail workers are ignoring these