Railways’ mechanisation of maintaining tracks may lay off one-third of its force

By Sagar Mohod :

IN a decision that would have significant impact on the future employability, Railway Board has set deadline for the year 2024 for complete mechanisation of maintenance of tracks. New age machines are all set to be inducted over Indian Railways as it seeks to join technological bandwagon and usher in a new era of track maintenance that would migrate from being dependent on humans to technology. The implication of the move is quite frightening as at present one-third of maintenance force of Railways is engaged on upkeep of tracks.

Citing changing nature of Railways wherein axle load and speeds are new norms, Board said it is now a technical necessity to introduce new parameters for maintenance. The move in short could sound death knell for the trackmen, they are said to be the backbone of country’s lifeline. Means within next few years as field units induct new machines, retrenchment of trackmen would be done rapidly. Already, Railways have floated SALUTE, a new voluntary retirement scheme, and trackmen are listed along with Running Staff, as it targets. In an internal note circulated to Principal Chief Engineers, Board’s Additional Member (Civil Engineering), U S S Yadav, issued new directives for switching over to mechanised maintenance protocols.

The communication mentioned that by December 2022 Indian Railways has planned complete mechanisation of main lines and in next two years of all routes. Railways is investing heavily in procurement of new machines that would take over the routine jobs of lifting of rail, packing of ballast, and other sundry maintenance jobs from trackmen. Even otherwise duty of trackmen is considered most intense among all the jobs over Railways owing to the risk involved, working conditions, lack of promotion avenues and loads of hardships.

The curtailment in work force however would also have its impact on workers’ movement, especially for trade unions whose main stay has been strength of trackmen in their ranks, said a senior union leader while reacting to Railway’s decision. The letter from the Additional Member also advised zonal officers to put in place infrastructure for handling of machines like stabling siding, satellite depots plus arranging trained staff for handling the operations and maintenance of machines. A three-tier maintenance system is advised to be created as per Indian Railways Permanent Way Manual with two Assistant Engineers (AENs) units using UTVs and road vehicle till regular Rail Borne Maintenance Units (RBMVs).

People in the know of the forthcoming advance system for track maintenance said while few machines are already in use like Dumatic Machine, it is used for packing of ballast; Unimat-utilised for turnout tamping, Tamping Express - meant for tamping in plain tracks, CSM - again used in plain track tamping, PSM - ballast tuning machine, FRM - ballast shoulder cleaning machine, UPB-utilised for loading and unloading material by tracks side. These machines are extensively utilised during routine maintenance schedules but yet manpower utilisation has not cut down. But with induction of machines like Track Recording Car (TRC), they are used for reading the alignment, gauge and longitudinal level and run once in three months to check track parameters, the manpower requirement would be reduced.

Other machines to be utilised at division-level would be Oscillograph Machine - used for lateral and vertical Oscillograph record once in a month, it reads even minute defect of track and even .2g variation or 9.8 metre per second gravitational force is considered dangerous and prompt corrections are carried out. Similarly, USFD is being utilised to know inherent track defects and their scheduled usage depending on gross metric tonnes. In short, Railways is now going for condition monitoring and thereafter maintenance as was done in other units, like that of Over Head Maintenance (OHE).

Alarm bells ringing for TUs Alarm bells have started ringing among trade unions (TUs) as Railway Board fast tracks switch over to usage of technology in its daily running operations and for maintenance purpose. As of date Trackmen constitute roughly three lakh of the total force, nearly one-third of around 12 lakh on rolls, but by 2024 their number is likely to halve by roughly 50 per cent, said a senior officer. One gang (a unit of trackmen) consists of nearly 100 persons and post revising in yardsticks that would follow once machine age comes into effect would render more than 60 per cent of strength surplus. Posts like blacksmith, welder, keyman in trackmen gang may become a thing of past as everything will be done through usage of machines and only for basic patrolling trackmen would be utilised.

At present trade unions have been crying hoarse that nearly two lakh posts in safety category are vacant but once mechanisation becomes universal these posts are going to automatically rendered surplus and thus surrendered. Thereafter, the employees will have option of VRS that would off load another big chunk of people from Railways in next few years.