CHENNAI: A joint mock drill was conducted at Tondiarpet marshalling yard on Wednesday to enhance disaster management skills and review disaster, relief and rescue operations.

Various units of Southern Railway including safety department, civil and RPF of Chennai Division of Southern Railway, in coordination with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Tamil Nadu Disaster Response Force (TNDRF).

A team of 400 professionally trained crew and state-of-the-art equipment were deployed for the exercise.

Ganesh, Principal Chief Safety Officer and Senior officials of Chennai Division, NDRF and North Chennai fire rescue team monitored the drill.

During the four hour long mock drill, an accident scene was simulated using condemned coaches and dummies of passengers.

A self-propelled accident relief train (SPART) with doctors, paramedical staff, rescue workers, engineers and emergency tools for extricating passengers from debris was sent to the drill spot.

The objective of the mock drill was to evaluate response and readiness in coordination with all departments so as to improve preparedness during the times of natural calamities and accidents.