Bulletin No. 18 Restoration of Railway Track near Elamanchili taken up o­n War-footing, Special Trains with Labour-force Moved, 174 Wagon Loads of Relief Material and 7 JCBs Pressed into Service

Shri P K Srivastava, General Manager, rushed to the spot to monitor

Heavy rains in the aftermath of Cyclone ‘Hudhud’ caused breaches to Railway track at a few locations between Elamanchili–Narsingapalli–Bayyavaram Stations o­n Vijayawada – Visakhapatnam rail route in Vijayawada Division of South Central Railway. The alert night track patrolmen noticed water overflowing o­n track at some locations between Elamanchili and Bayyavaram Stations. Immediately, restoration teams headed by Chief Engineer of SCR camping at Tuni rushed to the location and noticed breaches to the track. Divisional Railway Manager of Vijayawada Division also rushed to the spot.

SCR has taken up the track restoration activities o­n war-footing. As part of the action plan to face the situation arising out of cyclonic weather conditions, SCR has kept engineering material trains loaded with relief/restoration materials in close proximity at strategic locations o­n the affected route in advance. As many as 9 special material trains were mobilized from Vijayawada and the adjoining Secunderabad, Guntur and Guntakal Divisions well in time to the breached spots. These 9 material trains consist of 174 wagons loaded with – sand bags in 63 wagons; boulders in 92 wagons; quarry dust in 11 wagons, girders in 4 wagons and cribs in 4 wagons. 

To speed up the restoration activities, a team of Principal Heads of Departments led by Shri P K Srivastava, General Manager/SCR proceeded to Elamanchili by a Special train from Secunderabad this morning. The General Manager is closely monitoring the track restoration activities in the field and directed the officials to open up the Section to rail traffic in the earliest possible time.

For quick progress, 7 heavy-duty proclainers have been pressed into service despite the odds of lack of proper road connectivity to the work location. Local contract labours have been engaged by SCR o­n a large scale for restoration work. Also, 2 Special trains carrying 280 additional departmental labour-force have been moved to the affected location o­n priority – o­ne from Gudur and the other from Vijayawada. This move is aimed to strengthen the field workforce involved in track work and expedite the repair process.