South Western Railway has clarified about media reports on railway safety expenditure. There have been some media reports that Railway Safety Funds were spent on foot massager, crockery and other things.
It is clarified that these items were procured for use in Running Rooms, i.e., guesthouses meant for mandatory rest of loco pilots, guards after continuous duty of nine-10 hours.
These are as per recommendation of safety committee and not infructuous expenditure as wrongly assumed by some media outlets.
The mandate of expenditure on safety, to be funded by RRSK, was outlined in the MoF guidelines. Besides priority safety projects such as civil engineering works, signalling, mechanical and electrical works, there is a clear provision for expenditure on reducing chances of human errors in critical areas of operations, by improving working conditions and training of safety critical staff such as loco pilots. As much as ₹1,861 crore has been provided for Human Resource development.
The loco pilots (drivers) of trains keep standing for hours together on trains. After they sign off from duty, they go to the Running Room for mandatory break before their next duty.
The Running Rooms are to be provided with crockery in mess and foot massager along with other facilities for drivers to make sure that they [drivers] are well rested before the next duty.
Crockery, foot massager, winter jackets, etc., are being provided based on CAMTECH report of 2013 which was accepted in March 2014 and it was much before RRSK came into operation in 2017-18.
Laptops and computers are also provided for track management system application besides training of safety manpower.
As can be seen, the expenditure listed is based on set guidelines for procurement for upgradation of Running Rooms and training staff and other heads, directly related with safety of train running and hence, are not fripperies but part of mandate, said a release by Aneesh Hegde, Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway, Hubballi.
