Faults and fractures develop as mercury levels drop in tracks and plates
Faults and fractures develop as the mercury levels drop in plates and tracks and because of this, a very serious situation can arise.
Nagpur: The cold wave rail fracture incident has prompted the officials of SECR (South East Central Railway) Nagpur Division to deploy around 200 GPS-enabled men for manual monitoring of tracks and plates during nighttime.
Faults and fractures develop as the mercury levels drop in plates and tracks. And because of this, a very serious situation can arise.
During these cold days, the tracks shrink according to their metallic characteristics. This mostly happens in the nighttime. Which keeps a close watch between 11 o’clock in the night and 7 in the morning.
An official has also said that first a defect is developed, Then there is a very wide fracture or cracks of different dimensions on the railway track. And with each route of these trains, the fault also increases.
The centralized surveillance manual GPS surveillance system was put in place only after an emergency video conference of senior officials when the temperature started to drop in mid-December.
The standard practice of using Ultrasonic Fault Detection Equipment (USFD) only for periodic review of these tracks was supplemented with more micro-level inspections by patrol teams equipped with GPS trackers.
Frequent Daily Manual Checks
Surveillance has become more effective only with the addition of GPS trackers. And according to one official, the movements of the patrol party can be monitored very closely, It can also be detected and controlled effectively.
South East Central Railway Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Maninder Uppal has said that they currently have around 200 GPS tracker devices and very soon a single number will be brought.
The Divisional Railway Manager has stated that ultrasonic flaw detection device monitoring is only a periodic schedule-based event. Which had to be supplemented with more frequent daily manual checks.
An official has said that once the fault or mistake is detected, the concerned authorities are immediately alerted and the speed of these trains is also controlled. And other measures are also done on the affected part.
Officials can now track the movement of the patrol party on the Ghat section and also in the forest area. The officer has also said that patrol teams can also send messages and make voice calls to their own superiors using GPS devices.
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