Railway Gears Up To Improve Disaster Response

Bhubaneswar: Indian Railways is augmenting its resources to provide world class facilities to passengers by coming up with new initiatives time to time. Similarly, in a bid to improve response during disaster, Indian Railways is gradually replacing the existing locomotive hauled Accident Relief Medical Vans (ARMVs).

As per reports, ARMVs are being replaced with Self Propelled Accident Relief Medical Vans (SPARMVs) to improve response during disaster.

The specification of high-speed Self Propelled Accident Relief Trains (HS-SPARTs) with speed of 160 kmph has been finalized and it is planned to be procured in addition to existing 110 kmph SPARTs.

Apart from this, 175 Tonnes cranes are under procurement which is an upgradation over existing 140 T cranes available with Indian Railways. The concept of golden hour has also been recognised to expedite response time during disaster.

Indian Railways is now focusing more on faster response, better facilities and equipment, expanding resources to meet requirements in case of major accidents and training and preparedness.

At present, the Railways has developed an organized system of relief for managing accidents with its own resources. It consists of over six thousand trained breakdown staff, 176 Accident Relief Trains (ARTs) and 86 Accident Relief Medical Vans (ARMVs) made using passenger coaches.

All Accident Relief Trains and Accident Relief Medical Vans have pre-defined beats, inspection schedules and response time. In addition, there are 90 break down cranes of various capacities over Indian Railway system.