SOUTH CENTRAL RAILWAY INDEPTH ANALYSIS OF SIGNAL MAINTAINERS ESMs

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SOUTH CENTRAL RAILWAYINDEPTH ANALYSIS
OF SIGNAL MAINTAINERS (ESMs MSMs)
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Introduction. Railway Board vide letter No.
E(MPP)/2006/1/03 dt 6-12-2006 has directed to
study and assess the requirement of Man Power in
the following categories-   i)    Signal
Maintainers (ESM MSM). ii)   Coach Maintenance
(Washing Line)   Scope of the study The scope of
the study is to examine whether the manpower
utilized on the activities is optimum or
otherwise.
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• a)       Area of Research. In-depth Analysis of
  Signal Maintainers (ESM/MSM).
•  Entry level Qualification i) Minimum Class VIII
  passed/X passed for promotion.
• ii) Class X passed for direct recruits,
  through RRB.
• Hyderabad Division - Model Division for study
  due to-
•         Introduction of new technologies.
•         Present Manpower ratio.
•         System changes.

• Other Railways Visited
•         Central Railway
•         Western Railway
•         East Coast Railway
•         Southern Railway
•  

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•  b)       Yard stick circulated by Rly Bd.
•          Railway Board circulated the Yard Stick
  vide letter No 94/ER/1700/9(pt) dt 27-4-05.
  Manpower requirement is being worked out by all
  the Railways accordingly.
• Existing yardstick - per 1200 DESUs 4.67(SM-2
  for Basic maint.
  2.67 SMs for other
  activities incl LR/RG)
• Requirement as per yardstick for HYB Division
  25943 DESUs - 101 SMs.
• Existing sanctioned strength -
  73
• Actual requirement after work study
  58 ( 15 excess)
• The in-depth analysis reveals that the
  requirement for 1200 DESUs is 2.69 (including all
  activities), for D E Route whereas the existing
  yardstick circulated by Bd is 4.67 which is on
  high side.
• Existing
  yardstick.
• The maintenance schedules are prescribed for
  each signal maintainer by the respective
  railways.
•      The schedules of maintenance have been taken
  as the base for in-depth analysis.    

• c)                  Norms conveyed by the Board.
• ( Railway Board letter No
  E(MPP)2006/1/89 dt.4-10-06)
• Requirement should be on the basis of
  recently circulated yardstick and Bench Marking
  which ever is less.
• The category of MSM is to be taken as
  diminishing category.

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 (d)                   Bench Marks conveyed by
the Board.
The existing MPR of signal department of HYB
division as on 1-11-06 is 9.29 overall which is
higher not only to the average MPR of IR (8.85)
but also average MPR of S.C.Rlys (8.16).
Therefore the HYB Division where new technology
introduced has been taken as a model division for
the case study.
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 e. Specific details of the sub-activities
performed by the category.   i) Signaling gears
to be maintained by Signal Maintainers-        
a) Signals b) Points     
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• c)        Track circuits
•   d)    Block instruments and panel related
  location boxes of the above
  signaling gears.
•   e) Axle counters wherever provided
•   f) Relays, battery banks, chargers

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MOTOR OPERATED  POINTS

•         Maintenance of the records of the above
  gears.
•         Attending failures, if any.
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• ii) The periodicities of maintenance of gears.
•         Colour Light Signals - Monthly
•        Other gears - Fortnightly

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f) Comparison of staff strength/Bench
Mark/yardstick between SC Rlys and some other
railways.
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g. Reports of studies conducted by any railways
in this regard- summary of the reports. No
railways except S.C.Railways conducted in-depth
analysis. h. i) Work study report of any
Railways by workstudy wing of that railway.
Recommendation of the report/the work study
review and its implementation on that railway or
on Indian railways
S.C.Railway has so far not conducted any
workstudy of these categories. The
Western Railway has conducted workstudy on
Bhavnagar Division.
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• j. Views on the existing yardsticks/norms/work
  studies/reports for further modification.
•   System of working on HYB division of
  S.C.Railway
• Maintenance - Division divided into 4 sections
  i.e., Kacheguda,(KCG), Malkajgiri (MJF),
  Nizamabad (NZB), Mahabubnagar ( MBNR).
  The whole division is classified
  as D E Route.
• System of working Absolute block signaling
  system with panel
• interlocking and colour light LED
  signaling, Integrated power supply,
• data loggers and Push button type block
  instruments.
• Suburban section - double line automatic
  signaling system.

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3.New Technology introduced on the Division
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4. Utilization of Signal Maintainers
73 signal Maintainers (56 ESMs and 17 MSMs)
are utilized for maintenance of the
4 sub divisions. No semaphore signals in
Division. The utilization is as per
the schedule of maintenance drawn in
favour of each signal maintainer.
5. Schedules of Maintenance Duty of
the Signal Maintainer - 1. Maintaining
signaling gears periodically as per the
schedule.   2. The periodicity of
maintenance of the gears are the base for
drafting the
schedule.        3. At some stations, each
signal Maintainer is maintaining
signaling gears of 3 adjacent stations including
the LC gates, with the
assistance of MSM exclusively for maintenance of
mechanical gears. (8 Hrs
Continuous Roster with 3 shifts at KCG
and Falaknuma stns. Other stations only
one shift. ) 4. In some instances,
the schedule is restricted to 2 stations.
5. The suburban section with the automatic
system of working on traction
is provided with 3 shift schedule. (Continuous
Roster)
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• 6. Critical examination of existing system
• Existing schedule taken as yardstick for
  assessing manpower requirement.
• The monthly schedule of maintaining the gears of
  three adjacent stations with the assistance of
  one Khalasi by SM is found to be the
  
• best and optimum.
• This schedule is according to the periodicity
  prescribed with
• 4 spare days in a month.
• Total signaling units of 3 stations is
  approximately 1200 DESUs.
• MSM is exclusively utilized for maintaining the
  small portion of LC gates with
• one Khalasi.
• 7. Critical view of utilization.
• The schedule of 3 adjacent stations with 4 spare
  days in a month is the best and optimum.
• The schedules of maintaining 2 adjacent stations
  existing in some units is under utilization.
• The LC gates maintenance can also be entrusted
  to ESM instead of MSM.
• The category of MSM is under utilization.

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8. Need base requirement. Considering
the above aspect of utilization, the need based
requirement of the SMs for basic maintenance of
the 4 sections of division is calculated and
shown below-
  The basics requirement includes RG LR and
provisions for Gangs. Group D staff
requirement includes the trolley men in gangs.  
As a result of the review, 15 posts of signal
maintainer and 27 posts of Khalasis are found to
be excess. Thus the cost of saving per annum is
Rs 40,10,972/- (Group C 19,57,480 Group D
Rs 20,53,512/-).
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 9.  General view on other Railways.
 Maintenance of signaling system is based on
schedule drawn considering, No of gears, Density
of traffic, signaling System and Periodicity of
maintenance. The system of working in suburban
sections of Central Railway Western Railway is
unique and not comparable with other
Railways. The schedules and the periodicity of
the maintenance of signaling gears differs from
Railway to Railway. The percentage of failures
is less on all the Railways.     
Observations. Sholapur Division with 99
stations is divided into 6 SSE units with 189
signal maintainers.   SSE/South/Signal of Khurda
Road, East Cost Railway consist of 16 stations
with 19 ESMs and 8 MSMs.   Despite having new
technology, the strength of signal maintainers
appears to be high side in the above
units/division.
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• Recommendations.
• Work study/Assessment of workload of any
  department be done by a neutral observer, and not
  by a departmental officer who are parochial and
  highly biased. e.g. Gopalakrishna report suggests
  higher intake of gangman.
• More and more technically advanced complex
  sophisticated equipments and systems are being
  installed to meet the ever increasing demand of
  safety, flexibility, capacity and speed in
  operations. This will need less number of staff
  for testing and maintenance, but will need
  higher levels of skills and knowledge. We should
  have long-term plan and develop vision for at
  least next 20 years.
• The minimum qualification thus for ESM-III
  should be ITI (Electronics) for direct recruits
  and matriculation for promotees, to meet
  technological challenges.
• With this objective, there is a need to
  reassess the requirement of manpower by reviewing
  the schedules, periodicity of maintenance of
  signal maintainer with reference to new
  technology but not according to the available
  manpower, so that the actual requirement can be
  arrived.
• Since there is wide variance in section
  capacity, utilisation, types of equipment used
  etc, no uniform yardstick would serve the
  purpose. For each section, Division,
  Subdivision, Zero-based manpower analysis is
  must.
•   In present scenario of new technology, there
  is a need to train the staff in new skills to
  ease their working for which the training
  facility at IRISET and else where is inadequate.
  Increase Training Capacity.

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• k). Views on the possibility of
  introducing/upgrading the existing
  technology, IT, work methods.
• A new technology such as Data loggers, LEDs,
  IPS, AFTC etc have already been introduced in
  almost all railways.
• SSI with microchip which is a latest technology
  is being introduced in phased manner.
• Provision of PC with rail net connectivity can be
  extended to all section In- charges for
  easy access of data.
• l) Views on slackness in the work methods
  with specific reference to the
  category being reviewed.
• Wastage of time for line block for maintenance of
  gears to be avoided with proper planning.
• Uneven distribution of staff is found to be main
  cause for slackness in system of working.
• Improper drafting of maintenance schedules and
  assessment of periodicity of maintenance gears
  results in slackness and under utilization of
  staff.
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• m) Indication on redundancy of category or
  connected activity.
•    MSM is redundant category in the present
  scenario of electro/electronic based signaling
  system.
• Ancillary categories can be made surplus in
  the present scenario, by outsourcing the
  activities.
• n.) Scope for surrender of activities or posts.
• a) Outsourcing.
• The activities of ancillary categories can
  be outsourced.
• b) Induction/up gradation of technology.
• The new technology such as Data loggers,
  LEDs, IPS, AFTC etc have already been
  implemented.
• c) Introduction of IT.
•         Rail net connectivity for easy
  access of data.

o) Recommendations with system of identifying
surpluses.         The ancillary
categories and MSMs can be identified as surplus
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•  
• p) Short term action plan the procedure
  and ways to initiate the whole process within one
  month and physical implementation by the end of
  six months.
•     The short term planning is to redraft
  the maintenance schedule as enumerated above duly
  considering the MSM category as redundant for
  signal maintenance and to work out the actual
  requirement and surrender of post if any. Further
  planning is to be made out to outsource the work
  related to ancillary categories and to identify
  the redundancy.
• Long term action plan to implement the same and
  forecasting the possible reduction of staff
  during the next five years.
•         There is no scope for the present to
  identify the reduction of man power on long terms
  basis. The immediate action to be taken has
  already been explained. However, in a long term,
  the need for reduction may only arise if there is
  a radical change in technology.
•  

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