Woman from Karavali becomes loco pilot

Team Udayavani, Feb 14, 2019, 3:37 AM IST

Mangaluru: In every area, women are finding success through their achievements.  Women have driven car, jeep, buses and have also worked as pilots. Now, as an addition to this, by driving a train, a woman from Karavali has come forward for the new adventure in the railway department.

Vanitashri from Dakshina Kannada has earned the honour of being the “only female loco pilot” of Karavali Karnataka. Presently, she is giving her service for “shunting” at Mangaluru Junction railway station.

The responsibility of “shunting” includes moving the engine within the station limits or yard, change of engine or bogies and transferring of halted or late trains to separate track. The employees of this division of the railways do not drive a train from one location to another. Fr now, Vanitashri is handling this position. Although Vanitashri is a “loco pilot”, since she has two small children, she put in a request with the department informing that she did not want the chance of riving trains to far off location and in this backdrop, she is not driving trains to other distant locations.

KPT Diploma

When she was completing automobile diploma at KPT in Mangaluru, she was informed of the opening in the railway department. Later, she appeared for an exam and in 2006, Vanitashri started her professional life as an assistant loco pilot in Chennai. Vanitashri’s husband Satish is employed in the police force. The couple has 2 sons, the elder pursuing 5^th std while the younger is in the 1^st std. Her father, Narayana Nayak is the retired compounder of the animal husbandry department. Her mother Jayashree is an employee of EPF Bhavishya Nidhi office and recently got transferred to Bengaluru office.