Railways celebrates Women's Day with special initiatives

The Indian Railways on Thursday celebrated Women's Day with several special initiatives ranging from allowing only women to man railway stations to deploying only women TTEs on board a train.  

An all-woman team ran the Deccan Queen Express on the occasion, while an all-woman TTE team managed the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi, a statement from the national transporter said.

The Matunga station of the Central Railway become the first station to be operated by an all-women staff.

Matunga Road railway station of the Western Railway was operated by an all-women staff on Thursday.

Apart from this, Maninagar Station became the first station of Gujarat to be manned by an all-women staff.

The Railways also hailed the contribution of its first woman loco driver, Surekha Yadav, who, it said, paved the way for many others to follow suit.

Surekha, the first woman loco pilot, took on this difficult task three decades ago.

"She became the first woman rail driver of the Indian Railways in 1989," the statement said.

It also hailed the Vandana Chaturvedi from Bhopal who joined as the first woman guard of the Railways on April 19, 1990.

Automatic sanitary napkin vending machines were also inaugurated at Delhi Junction and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations, the railway ministry said.