Railways introduce new hill gangs and relief trains in KK Line

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Waltair Division introduced specialized Hill Gangs, aided by drone surveys, for handling rocky terrain and boulders in the Anantagiri Hills for facilitating track and tunnel maintenance in the Kottavalasa-Kirundul Line ( KK line), which is the main freight revenue earning route. The team members have been provided with safety gear Overment.
More than 20 staff were trained this summer at the National Institute of Mountaineering under the Ministry of Defence in Arunachal Pradesh. 30 more staff belonging to the Engineering, Traction, and Accident Relief Departments are gearing up for specialized training at this Arunachal Pradesh Institute in October.
To tackle any emergency due to boulder obstruction from both sides in the Badavara - Borraguhalu Ghat section, a new Track Material Relief train has been introduced at Shrungaravarapukota Station in addition to the existing train available at Araku. This will help ease track maintenance as this train is equipped with Proclain, Compressors, pneumatic breakers to blast boulders coming onto tracks, track material, and others.
A New Flying Squad equipped with hydraulic rerailing equipment with wagon coupling and bogie material in a special coach to handle emergencies has recently been posted at Araku.
Emergency Communication sockets were installed at both ends of all tunnels as well as inside longer tunnels in the KK line. Trolley and Man Refuges in tunnels were recently provided retroreflective indicator boards to guide patrolling trackmen.
DRM Saurabh Prasad said that these measures have been introduced to minimize disruptions and restore operations faster in any exigency in the KK line, especially as the line is critical for handling the growth of iron ore traffic.