Samta Kumari (27) — the first woman assistant loco pilot in the Lucknow division of North Eastern Railways — at the controls of Lucknow-Gonda 598 DN passenger train at Charbagh station on Wednesday. This was the second time she drove a train — under supervision of loco pilot Gyanendra Dixit. Her first drive was on Tuesday. Hailing from Bihar’s Patna, Samta joined the Indian Railways after qualifying an examination conducted by Railway Recruitment Board, Gorakhpur, in 2009. Joining work on January 16 this year, she underwent a training in Gorakhpur till May 30. “As a child I always wanted to drive trains, but you can’t buy a train, you have to join the Railways to drive a train,†Samta said. She is proud that she is among the very few women train drivers in the country.
Samta’s father, an office assistant in Railways, died several years ago. The family includes her mother, a brother and three sisters — two of whom are members of the local Nagar Palika Parishad in Bihar. Samta did her matriculation in Patna in 2003, then got a diploma in electronics from an ITI in Hapur, Ghaziabad, in 2008. Officials said she is the fifth woman loco pilot in the Indian Railways.