After near-miss incident, railway station masters to be relieved of non-core duties
While an alert railway official had managed to avert the collision by cutting the power supply to one of the trains, three railway officials, including Senior Divisional Operations Manager of the Madurai railway division, were suspended last month based on the findings of a safety audit report, official sources said.
As per an order issued by General Manager R N Singh dated July 4, all station masters of railway stations handling more than 24 trains per day must be relieved of their non-core duties before September 1. Though the order did not have any reference to the incident, it was allegedly issued based on recommendations from the high-level safety committee that investigated the safety lapse linked to the near-miss incident on the Kovilpatti-Kadambur section of Thoothukudi district.
In the directive, Singh noted that station masters are currently tasked with duties, including ticket sales, public announcements, passenger inquiries, updating coach indication systems, and dealing with the Crew Management System Kiosk.
These responsibilities, he said, diverted their attention from their primary role of ensuring smooth train operation and safety. To allow station masters to focus solely on core operational duties, he ordered that they be relieved of all non-operational tasks by September 1.
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