The Railways and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Arakkonam & Thrissur Units jointly organised a full-scale train accident joint exercise today (18.05.23) with Kerala Fire and Rescue Services at Ernakulam Marshalling Yard. The role of each person participating in the rescue and restoration from a real-world accident or disaster scenario generated as a trial is better understood with the aid of mock drills. DMO Health Dept. Ernakulam, Kerala Police and District Disaster Management Authority and District Administration Ernakulam participated in the exercise.
At 8:15 a.m., maintenance wings and all concerned were informed of a train accident at the Ernakulam Marshalling Yard, where a train coach carrying passengers had derailed, capsized and caught fire. The rescue effort got underway shortly after. All trapped passengers were freed alive, the fire was entirely put out, and they were all taken to the nearest hospital after rendering first aid at the accident location. Later, a crane was used to re-rail the coach. At the end, there was a debriefing session to generate the lessons learnt for improving teamwork and efficacy of the units for Disaster Management.
S.M. Sharma, Divisional Railway Manager, Thiruvananthapuram, Shri Vijayakumar, Senior Divisional Safety Officer, Thiruvananthapuram Division and branch officers were present. 200 railway staff participated in the drill. Shri Delvin Davis, Fire Officer, Club Road, Shri Rajesh Kumar, Fire Officer, Gandhinagar and 24 Fire and Rescue Service officials with 4 fire tenders efficiently managed the fire control exercise. Shri Praveen Prasad, Dy. Commandant led the NDRF team of 40.
The exercise was organised to evaluate rescue operations’ readiness and practises, disseminate information on accident reporting guidelines, impart knowledge on accident reporting procedures. Improve inter-departmental coordination and transfer of expertise across all coordinating agencies. In this mock drill new machineries like cold cutting equipments, plasma cutters, special fire-fighting equipments etc. were used.
