NEW DELHI: For
Vijay Pal Singh, any hour of the day can be a ‘working’ hour. The rest of India, indeed the world, may be in a lockdown, but he chugs through the states, ensuring that one channel remains vitally open when everything else is closed:
supply lines
for essentials. The 48-year-old locomotive driver, steering the
freight trains
of
Northern Railway
, has no time for self-isolation as he brings in the goods that the capital’s cocooned citizens need.
Singh perhaps has never felt as important as he does now, being the Delhi Division’s indispensable cog. He does not have a fixed routine and is summoned two hours before a freight train has to be moved, meaning he has to remain plugged into the job 24 hours. He, however, feels this is an ideal way to serve his country.
“Very few people are working right now and only those who are essential are being called in. I know how important my work is and each train that I bring in has tonnes of essential items, food, vegetables and other goods,” acknowledges the locomotive driver. “Each journey is helping people in the city and ensuring supplies even as they stay in their home, keeping themselves and others safe.”
Singh joined the Delhi Division of Northern Railway in 1998. He lives in Ghaziabad, but says he has no trouble getting across in the capital. “I take pride in dressing up in my uniform and the policemen don’t stop me any longer. If I have to, I flash my curfew pass and they realise where I am headed to,” says Singh, from whom gloves and masks have become a habit now.
“We have been provided a sanitisation kit, complete with hand sanitisers, gloves, masks and disinfectants. Once it finishes, we get another kit from the railways free of cost,” said Singh, who admits his family is angst-ridden that he has to leave home so frequently.
“My brother and father are connected to the railways, so they understand how important freight trains are,” he says. “My wife and two children, however, worry a lot. Even if I cough once, they get scared and fret over me.” Singh, who spends eight hours per shift but can even be engaged in multiple journeys, isn’t unprotected. “At the station, we aren’t allowed to enter the loco lobby without getting screened and sanitised,” he discloses. In addition, social distancing is carefully maintained. “We can also ask the staff to disinfect the train numerous times. Each button that we press is cleaned thoroughly every day. As this is a contact-based job, even one person could infect so many others,” says Singh.
He reveals that any person exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 is immediately sent into home quarantine. “Only a skeletal staff is allowed to work. A small team runs the entire operations in each station — and this is the fastest way to ferry goods. It is an honour serving my fellow citizens at his trying time,” he smiles.
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