INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nearly 1,000 loco pilots failed breathalyser tests in three zones in the last five years, a third of them at the moment of signing off from
pilots of passenger trains.Tamil Nadu Rains: Heavy rainfall shuts schools in 8 districts, halts train servicesMumbai fared better on this
count, though having even one tipsy train driver is one too much
Railway and West Central Railway zones
The railways routinely carries out breathalyser tests as a safety measure to prevent consumption of alcohol during duty hours
driving passenger trains, had failed the alcohol test
breathalyser test before signing in for work or after the shift, but said 44 were caught out in Ahmedabad, 37 in Vadodara, 15 in Rajkot and
eight in Bhavnagar between January 2020 and September 2023.Delhi division of Northern Railways said that 181 loco pilots of passenger trains
and 290 of goods trains failed breathalyser tests in the past five years
Of them, 75 passenger train pilots and 114 of goods trains were tested soon after they signed off from work
Moradabad came next, with 138 infractions, including 108 who failed the test after signing off duty
Seventeen failed in Lucknow division.Kota division in WCR said 40 loco pilots failed breathalyser tests, a quarter of them while signing off
know that so many loco pilots tested positive for alcohol after signing off from work
central PRO, Harshit Shrivastav, told TOI
A letter circulated to all chief safety officers by the railway ministry in 2012 says that if a loco pilot is found to have an alcohol level
of 1-20 mg/100ml then they should be taken off duty and it should be marked on their service record
Those detected with alcohol levels above 20mg/100 ml should be removed from service, it says.
