Dharmendra Kumar: The real life hero of Indian Railways

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In Badlapur-Vangani section there are two auto signal relay huts which are situated on river bank.

On 21.07.2021 there was heavy rainfall in all over South East section between Kalyan-Karjat of Central Railway due to which river level was increasing rapidly to alarming level.

Dharmendra Kumar MCM posted in Badlapur was observing this situation so he can act to minimise the damage of these relay huts.

On morning of 22nd July river started to overflow, so Dharmendra along with Sanjay (Signal Assistant) left with pickup in this section.

First he reached relay hut-1 (RH1) and switched off all the equipments then he went to Level Crossing (LC) gate no. 15 relay hut where he also switched off equipments, so that when flooding occurs these will not get damage to the high extent.

When he was moving towards RH2, the water level suddenly raised on road, so that he decided to go by walking on track, but after some distance water level on track suddenly raised to about one meter over the track, he along with signal assistant and driver got surrounded by water from all directions and they did not have any way out from this situation, he decided to climb on released OHE structure which was having cross arm type support.

As the situation was worst and water was all around them, sanjay and driver was very frightened by this situation but Dharmendra kept their spirit high and motivated them to fight this unexpected situation.

During this time when he was stranded on OHE mast he shot the video of flooding and send it to officers so that restoration can be planned accordingly. This incidence was caught by some media channels also.

When the water level receded to safe level then they got down and went to inspect the installations to access the situation and plan for restoration. They was stranded for around 7 hours on mast.

When water level gone below the track then he stated the work for restoration of submerged signalling gears.

Restoration and revival of submerged electronic equipment is very difficult task, but as many equipments were switched off before flooding, it can be restored without much replacement.

The heroic efforts of Dharmendra before flooding and during restoration is the main cause to early restoration of relay huts.

The important point is to be noted is that these relay huts are restored with mere 10% of replacement of equipments and it was only possible because of Dharmendra’s timely analysing of situation and prompt action.

Dharmendra, Sanjay and Samir (contract driver) deserves the appreciation for their efforts, hard work and never give up attitude in difficult situation.

Dharmendra is a priceless asset of Indian Railways. He has showed the true spirit of railwaymen. We salute him & his team.

See this video

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