The old locomotive is being renovated with a toilet. |Picture source: Hindu
Although the Railway Commission recently found that the request for a locomotive pilot while driving the train is “operably feasible”, the Ministry of Railways said it is doing its best to strengthen the locomotive’s urinal facilities.
Inquiry sent to Hindus, the ministry said that in a written reply, 883 Locos installed toilets.
“While no locomotives were equipped with diaper facilities before 2014, since 2018, initiatives have been taken based on feasibility to provide water-free urine facilities since 2018, with 883 of them loaded with the same locomotives. 7075 Locos are also equipped with air conditioning systems.”
“All new locomotives are being manufactured have toilets installed. In addition, the old locomotives are being modified with toilets. For this purpose, design modifications have been made in older locomotives.”
The railway has nearly 15,000 functional locomotives.
A top railway official said that when the train has many stops, locomotive pilots can use toilets at the station.
Each train runs with a locomotive pilot and an assistant locomotive pilot. “While the solution is to have spacious locomotives inside the locomotive, the new design locomotive has toilets inside, such as the Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat and Namo Bharat trains. While older locomotives don’t have spacious locomotives, on-site pilots can use toilets at the station,” the official said.
On short trains, crew members can use toilets in the terminal. If the passenger trains, the crew uses the toilet when the train station is at the station.
In its reply, the ministry said that in 2016, according to the recommendation of a high-power committee, the locomotive pilot’s duty hours were reduced from 10 to 9 hours.
On long-distance trains, the entire crew, including the train manager, locomotive pilot and assistant locomotive pilot, made changes after a few hours. For example, Delhi Tejas Rajdhani Express (Train No. 12951) in Central Mumbai has eight stops and three responsibilities changes for the crew during a 15 and a half hour journey.
The locomotive pilot, assistant locomotive pilot and guard crew boarded the train on the board of directors at the Vadodara junction and boarded four hours of responsibility at the Vadodara junction as another crew member took control from there. The third set took over Kota Junction and New Delhi, running for five hours. ” said a senior railway official.
The official said the train crew assigned a time period for duty, mostly seven hours, and they were offline at designated stops.
The ministry said that between 2014-15 and 2024-25, 64,007 candidates had been recruited as of January 1, as of January 1, while 15,300 were retired.
publishing – April 20, 2025 08:59 pm ist
