Women staff steer Ajmer-Agra express

JAIPUR: Saturday was a special day at the Jaipur railway station. For the first time, the Ajmer-Agra intercity express was driven by a female loco pilot and the entire staff in the train was female.

The 134 km distance between Ajmer and Jaipur railway stations which falls under the North Western Railway, was covered by assistant loco pilot Happy Devi.

Happy Devi was proud and excited to have undertaken the journey. “I am very happy today that I successfully carried out a big responsibility that was placed on me. Initially when I became a loco pilot, I faced problems. There were issues with night shifts but now things have settled down,”

Happy belongs to Kanpur and was recruited in the Railways in 2017 She has served as an assistant loco pilot on several trains such as Jabalpur Express, Udaipur Intercity, Agra Fort express.

Asked if she has any message for women, Happy said, “Now nothing is impossible for women. They can achieve anything they want.” The other staff in the train including the Travelling Ticket examiner and the flying squad was also female. The train arrived at Jaipur station around 9.30 am from Agra. It reached Ajmer railway station around 11.50 am.The women staff has been deployed on the train as part of the North Western Railway’s 10 day celebration of International Women’s Day during which several activities are being held, said NWR Divisional Railway Manager Manjusha Jain.

Jain said on Monday a special felicitation ceremony will be held for the women staff of the AjmerAgra intercity express.