Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reviews railway preparedness ahead of cyclone Ditwah

In view of Cyclone Ditwah bearing down on Tamil Nadu, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reviewed preparedness measures on Saturday to ensure minimum disruption to rail services and passenger safety. The coastal areas expected to be hit by the impending cyclone fall mainly under the Southern Railway zone.

"A dedicated network of helplines and passenger-assistance desks must be established to support travellers facing uncertainties due to cancellations or rerouting," a press statement from the railway ministry said.

It added that Vaishnaw has reaffirmed the commitment of the Indian Railways to public safety.

The minister has instructed the officials concerned to ensure that war rooms are activated at the divisional, zonal and Railway Board levels to monitor the situation and remain alert for any extreme scenario.

"He has also asked railway officials to coordinate with civil-administration authorities and proactively communicate with passengers until normalcy is restored," the statement said.

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Meanwhile, the Kolkata Metrol Railway said that it is implementing the Building Management System (BMS) in each station of the Blue Line to facilitate centralised control of all systems.

The BMS is aimed to facilitate centralised control of all systems, in a station including platform AC, tunnel ventilation, lifts, escalators and sump pumps.

This initiative will pave the way for remote monitoring and control of all electrical assets and temperatures from the central location of Metro Rail Bhavan.

"According to this plan, five stations each will be grouped together as a cluster, and all the assets of such a cluster of stations (five each) will be monitored from one monitoring centre located at a particular station among these five stations," he said.

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Activities of all such monitoring centres will finally be supervised or controlled on a real-time basis from the Metro Rail Bhavan Control Room.

The ambient temperature of stations will be controlled at the desired level automatically without any human intervention, and any rising temperature either in the tunnel or in the platform will be communicated to the control automatically with a buzzer sound.

Whenever there is a rise in temperature in the tunnel, or a rise in sub-soil temperature or fire in the tunnel or congestion of trains inside the tunnel, then automatically the ventilation fan will start to operate on its own, the spokesperson said.

As India's first and Asia's fifth Metro Railway network, the Blue Line was built and commissioned with state-of-the-art technology then available in 70s.

"Whenever and whatever technological upgrades, automations have evolved, the same has been continuously incorporated in Metro Railway Kolkata in Blue Line and in all other new corridors," he said.