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Highlighting the perilous nature of track maintenance, the All India Railway Federation (AIRF) hosted the All India Track Maintainers Conference in Delhi to advocate for the safety and well-being of over 2.5 lakh workers.
Secretary General, AIRF, Shiv Gopal Mishra described the trackmen as the "lifeline" of the Indian Railways, emphasising that while they maintain over 60,000 km of track, urgent qualitative improvements are needed to protect them in one of the industry's most dangerous roles. "The strength of more than 2.5 lakhs of trackmen, who are the lifelines of Indian railway, have the most important part in maintaining the 60,000 km railway tracks. It is also one of the most dangerous tasks that they do. We constantly try for their qualitative improvements, but still, there is much to do. We have two major motives behind this conference - first, that railway works safely, and second, that trackmen are taken care of," Mishra told ANI. Mishra called for a dual focus on machine modernisation and worker adaptability. He stressed that as technology evolves, the federation's primary mission remains ensuring the safety of the rail network and the comprehensive welfare of the workers who sustain it. "As the new era of technology has arrived, machines are being updated; similarly, the workers also must be adaptive. We've included the Railway Minister, Member Infra, GM, DRM and almost three thousand trackmen have come to attend the conference. We wish the vision to be taken forward. Meanwhile, Indian Railways also looks into the well-being of the workers," he said. Earlier, speaking to a gathering of trackmen and railway officials, Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnav said the government's focus is now on making both rail operations and track workers' safety on par with standards in developed countries. "We don't want to settle there. We want to do even better work. We want to bring Indian Railways to the scale of developed countries," he said, crediting the entire railway workforce and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the progress made so far. He also noted that for only the second time in India's history, the entire Parliament had worked in support of railway workers during the recent Budget Session. Vaishnav noted that railway accidents have reduced by 90% in the last decade, but stressed that safety cannot be taken for granted. The bigger challenge, he said, is protecting track maintenance staff who work on live lines. Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Railways is moving towards universal adoption of 60 kg 90 UTS rails, 260-metre rail panels, thick web switches and weldable CMS in turnouts. Welding is also being upgraded from 80-welding to flash butt welding for greater track safety. Another significant change is the introduction of screw-type fasteners, already in use globally for 70-80 years. Further, the Minister assured staff that these changes will make their work safer and more efficient. "The time when track maintenance was done using 100-year-old methods is gone. Now it will be done in a modern, comfortable and safe way," he said. (ANI)
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