Indian Railways has taken a very strict and big step for the safe and smooth operation of trains. For some time now, many cases of technical faults in trains were continuously coming to light. When the senior officials of the Railways investigated all these defects in depth, they came across a huge and shocking problem. Investigation revealed that the name or batch number of the companies making them were not clearly written on the parts that were defective in the train. Because of this, it was becoming very difficult to decide which vendor or company had supplied this poor quality item. To end this serious problem forever, Railways has now made the rules regarding warranty and marking of parts extremely stringent.
Unidentified spare parts increased the tension of railways
In recent times, many incidents of failure of train equipment have come to light, during the investigation of which it was revealed that the required marking on the parts was either completely incomplete or it was completely impossible to read it. Giving information about this, a senior Railway official said that due to lack of clear marking, there was a huge difficulty in ascertaining the traceability of the parts i.e. their authenticity.
This made it very difficult to prove which company was actually responsible for the technical fault in the train. Keeping this important thing in mind, 'Railway Design and Standards Organization' (RDSO) has issued very strict instructions to all the zonal railways, wagon manufacturers and third-party inspection agencies of the country.
Now companies will have to accept this most special condition
According to the new rules, it has now become completely mandatory to write the name of the manufacturing company, its code, serial number, batch number, as well as the month and year of its manufacture on every spare part supplied to Indian Railways. Not only this, the place of marking, its size, its depth and the way of writing it should also be as per the standards set by RDSO.
Now the Railways will not only check whether any information is written on the part or not, but will also thoroughly check whether the marking is complete, correct and easily readable or not.
The strictest attention will be kept on these very important parts
The important parts which Railways is going to check most strictly include important parts like coupler, draft gear, brake block, compressed-air brake equipment, spring, side bearer, adapter, brake beam, bogie and wear plates.
According to senior railway officials, zonal railways will now do random checking of any new item at the time of receipt, while fitting it in the train and in the railway workshop. Apart from this, the entire scope of checking has also been increased significantly in the Routine Overhaul Depot and Train Examination Yard so that no irregularities can be avoided.
Companies will suffer huge losses if rules are broken
The new order of the Railways is clear that if the marking on any part is found missing, incomplete, wrong or not readable, then the Railways will immediately reject the entire lot of that company or vendor. In such cases, the manufacturer or supplier company will have to replace the entire item from its own pocket as per warranty rules.
The biggest thing is that in many categories, companies will have to replace all the rejected parts absolutely free of cost. Apart from this, the entire transportation cost of taking the defective goods back from the factory and bringing new correct goods will also have to be borne by the concerned company. Clear instructions have also been given to the 'Quality Assurance Directorate' and third-party agencies to strictly follow all these rules during inspection.