For the first time in the history of Indian Railways, Coaching Depot, Guwahati is engaging an All Women Gang for maintenance of coaches.
With the increase in number of trains from the Guwahati Station, there was an increase in the maintenance needs of the incoming coaches in the pitline at Coach Maintenance Depot, Guwahati. The pit line is the maintenance facility in any Coach Maintenance Depot for the cleaning and maintenance work of the coaches once a train reaches its termination station. The Depot has a coach holding of about 1300 and its activities are spread over Kamakhya, Paltan Bazaar and New Guwahati in Guwahati with a total of 6 pitlines and 2 sicklines and a staff of about 1000 technicians. Out of these, about 200 are ladies.
The maintenance work at pit lines has predominantly been in a male domain with work involved in all three shifts requiring the staff to go inside the dockpits for under-gear (consisting of wheels and brake system) items attention of the coaches. The ladies were usually involved in ancillary maintenance works of the coaches related to curtains repair, indication boards painting, etc.
This is the first time in Indian Railways that a pure ladies maintenance gang has been engaged in any pitline of a Coach Maintenance Depot. The gang will be starting the maintenance work after completion of the training on the 8th March 2018 on the occasion of the International Women's Day.
