Title - Railways get crane for emergencies

The Railways has finally readied a huge 140-tonne class crane for emergencies after the first one got damaged two years ago.

It was reported that the crane had suffered immense damage as it was operated by untrained personnel. As a result, the Railways had to incur a loss of `8 crore at the very first instance of its use.

“At present, operators are being sent in batches to Jamalpur for training. This time, it’s to operate the large, microprocessor-controlled 140-tonne breakdown crane acquired recently for the Thiruvananthapuram division.

It was even successfully put to use in Nagercoil after a mishap”, said area manager P.L.Ashok Kumar.

In 2010, when the division bought a similar crane, untrained personnel operated it leading to the crane overturning near the Mattancherry Halt.

Once this type of a crane overturned, it would get damaged and could never be put to further use, said an official.

After the mishap two years ago, the Railways was forced to abandon the crane. Its long horizontal jib can still be seen at the Mattancherry Halt station. Its base and other parts were separated and taken away to the Jamalpur locomotive engineering workshop.