Railway staff expose dirt on old coaches

CHENNAI: The safety of Indian Railways has been allegedly put on peril with inadequate allocation of funds for safe running of trains and using coaches that have outlived their shelf life, according to Southern Railway Mazdoor Union general secretary N Kanniah.Addressing a press conference, Kanniah alleged that there was lack of funds for building new coaches for trains and the Chennai-Coimbatore Duronto Express in the Southern Railway zone was being run with coaches that were battered and allegedly nearing their end.“They just painted the old coaches and put them to use in the southern sector,” alleged Kanniah.He also said that there was inadequate allocation for safe running of trains. “A sum of Rs 408 crore alone is allocated for track maintenance and utilising the same only 20 per cent of track can be maintained,” he said.However, railway officials denied the allegations said there was no compromise on safety. “The coaches are scrutinised before being put to use,” officials said.Kanniah also alleged that the coaches were rarely fumigated as these jobs were outsourced and the workers doing these jobs were paid low wages, resulting in shoddy work.