The COVID-19 lockdown could be the worst thing to have happened to our world. Staying indoors, working from home, clearly isn¡¯t as fun as we thought it would be.?
However, looks like Indian Railways has made the most out of this situation, which is great to know.
The Indian Railways announced that it has used COVID-19 lockdown as an opportunity to carry out maintenance work of the railway network across the country.?
It announced that over 500 modern heavy-duty track maintenance machines along with track signal and Overhead Equipment maintenance workers have worked continuously for 10,749 machine days to complete the much-needed track maintenance of 12,270 kilometres plain track.
They¡¯ve also taken the help of Ultrasonic Flaw Detection machines to look for anomalies across 30,182 kilometres of tracks while carrying out 1,34, 443 rail welds using the machine. They¡¯ve been also monitoring track health using periodic runs of Oscillation Monitoring Systems -- 1,92,488 kilometres of track at 5,362 peak locations, fixing issues along the way.?
Track work conducted by the body includes the remodelling of Kazipet Yard in Telangana, Vijaywada Yard in Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore City Yard in Karnataka and Baroda Station in Gujarat.
They¡¯ve also carried out crucial bridge work including re-girdening of bridge no. 86 on Tunga River near Shivamogga Town, dismantling of Road Over Bridge (ROB) near Chennai Station. Construction of a bridge in the Rajahmundry-Vishakhapatnam section, the launching of 6 foot over bridges in Bhusaval and several others.?
Indian Railways said in a statement, "Indian Railways planned these works during lockdown period considering it 'Once in a lifetime opportunity' to wipe out these maintenance arrears and take up the execution of work without affecting the train service."
Looks like we have some really fun train journeys to look forward to post COVID-19. What do you think about Indian Railways¡¯ prompt thinking? Tell us in the comments below.