Nine railway staff will be given awards on Independence Day for showing “exceptional devotion to duty”.
General manager of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Sanjive Roy, on Saturday said he had decided to award the staff from various divisions of the NFR zone on August 15 as their prompt actions prevented accidents.
On May 29 at 5.58am, Bikash Mandal, track maintainer of Barpeta Road under Rangiya division, who was on patrol between Barpeta Road-Sorbhog stations, stopped 55801 Manas-Rhino passenger train. Due to his alertness, a probable mishap was averted.
On May 31, driver B.C. Boro and assistant driver P.K. Das — both from Lumding division — who were duty on 12424 Rajdhani Express detected “wrong setting of points” at Dhalpukhuri station and immediately stopped the train. Due to their alertness, a probable derailment was averted.
On June 8, driver Mukesh Kumar and assistant driver Jitendra Kumar — both from Tinsukia division — stopped a train between Tingrai-Digboi stations after noticing movement of an elephant. They immediately applied the emergency brakes.
On June 5, track maintainer Ranjit Nag, while working as a keyman between Rajabhatkhawa-Alipurduar junction station, noticed smoke billowing out from a wagon of the goods train and immediately informed the station manager of Alipurduar. During checking, brake blocks of three wagons were found heavily jammed which were later rectified.
On June 8, assistant driver under Tinsukia division, Heera Kumar who was on 12423 Rajdhani Express, noticed a big “tree on the track” between Nakachari– Mariani stations. He immediately arranged to stop the train by applying emergency brake and prevented a disaster.
On June 26, driver Sudhir Kumar and assistant driver Vivekanand Yadav, while working on HDCG container, noticed a big tree on railway electrification wire on the track at 2.09pm while entering Eklakhi station under Katihar division.
They immediately applied the emergency brake and informed the station manager of Eklakhi. Due to their alertness a probable mishap was averted.