Every railway zone is going all out in the battle against the Covid-19 outbreak and Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is no exception. A series of measures are being taken for alleviating the suffering of the common man as follows:-
Cooking food for the needy
NFR’s Katihar Base Kitchen in NFR provided 500 meals on Sunday to needy people which were distributed by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) with the help of NGO.
RPF with the help of NGOs also provided about 150 meals at New Jalpaiguri and Samsi station areas. IRCTC will be providing food on demand.
24*7 goods trains
NFR is continuing its goods train operation round the clock engaging staff in train operation and other infrastructural maintenance works.
This is being done to continuously supply of essential commodities like rice, potoatoes, milk, sugar, salt, food grains, coal, fertilizer and POL.
In the last one week 210 goods trains operated within the NFR railway zone.
For instance coal was loaded from Ledo for use in the Farakka Super Thermal Power Project, food grains were unloaded at Batnaha, New Jalpaiguri, Maldah Court sidings under Katihar division and Udaipur in Lumding division, salt at Barpeta Road under Rangiya division, wheat at Silchar and sugar at Jirania stations under Lumding division, potato was unloaded at New Tinsukia under Tinsukia division.
Parcel Trains
The zone is also running parcel trains to ensure uninterrupted and seamless supply chain of goods and essential commodities. These include medical supplies, medical equipment, food, dairy products, groceries, edible oil and other necessary items etc. in small quantities in railway parcel vans for e-commerce companies and others such as state governments.
Running of Parcel specials is being done has been planned on 20 routes. The routes include New Delhi –Guwahati, Moga – Changsari, Kalyan – Guwahati, Shalimar – New Guwahati.
Staff Deployment and SOP
The zone is ensuring deployment of bare minimum staff at goods offices, stations, control office, security personnel and infrastructural maintenance etc.
Standard Operating Procedures for containing the Covid-19 virus such as thermal screenings of staff before commencement of duty, proper sanitization of work place including coaches and locomotives, mandatory use of mask, practicing social distancing while on duty, use of sanitizers and hand wash are being ensured besides training of medical/paramediacal staff on handling Covid-19 cases have been done.
Home delivery of essential commodities like groceries, vegetables etc. are being arranged in various locations in order to restrict unnecessary movement of staff looking for essential commodities.
Coaches as isolation wards
NFR has converted train coaches into isolation wards to meet the increasing demand for beds in the isolation wards.
Women railway staff in various divisions of NFR ( Katihar, Lumding, Rangiya, Tinsukia and New Alipurduar) are making masks and sanitizers for use by essential staff on duty.
Staff of various workshops has taken initiative in extending help to Railway Hospitals by repairing patient beds, oxygen trolleys, stretcher wheels and saline stands.