Good move! Indian Railways introduces rail bicycle for its staff

To make life easier for its staff, the Indian Railways has introduced bicycles. However, these are not ordinary bikes. These rail bicycles will run on railway tracks at an average speed of 10 kmph. This is expected to help them to carry out daily inspections, monitoring and track repair, ECoR said in a statement here on Tuesday. 

The Railways said that these bicycles have been manufactured in-house by Permanent Way (P-Way) unit of East Coast Railway's Khurda Road division by using damaged rail dolly wheels for balancing the cycle. These bicycles move at a maximum speed of 15 kmph and can be easily lifted as they weigh only 30 kg. They can also be dismantled and assembled by one person. 

It believes that these bicycles will help track men in inspecting and monitoring the tracks specially during monsoons. As of now, the track men carry out their duties on foot round the year.  

After a heavy shower, the bridge approach and other vulnerable locations can be easily inspected by the staff in a short span of time with the help of a rail bicycle. Unwanted detentions of trains during monsoons can also be avoided by using them. 

The railway cycles will be very helpful for patrolling during summers too. The rail bicycles can also be used for patrolling to ensure safety and security in sections of the railway division currently closed to traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the release added. 

Meanwhile, five railway stations in Bihar under the East Central Railway zone will soon get a new look following re-development work on the pattern of airports under the PPP model. The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), a statutory unit of the Indian Railways, will re-develop Rajendra Nagar Terminal (Patna), Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Singrauli and Begusarai railway stations. 

The re-development works of these five railway stations will be done under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. 

"These stations will be developed with state of the art technology having facilities like food plaza, restaurants, parking zones with links to platforms, shopping areas, Internet, cafeteria, medical emergency booth and others," Ved Parkash Dudeja, Vice Chairman, RLDA, said.