Padang - The Padang Class II Railway Engineering Headquarters (BTP), through the Sawahlunto Service Unit (Satpel), conducted monitoring at two inactive stations, Batu Tabal Station and Kacang Station, as a form of protection of state assets.

The two stations, which are still within the working area of Satpel Sawahlunto, had previously experienced theft of iron bearings and railway tracks, so regular monitoring of these locations is necessary to minimize theft of state assets.

For your information, the Batu Tabal Railway Station (BTL), located in South Batipuh, Tanah Datar, is a Class II inactive railway station located at an altitude of +370 meters and has three railway lines, of which line 2 is straight.

This station used to serve as a crossing and transfer point for coal trains from Ombilin coal mine in Sawahlunto to Teluk Bayur port and has been inactive since early 2003 due to the exhaustion of coal mining in Ombilin.

Meanwhile, Kacang station (KCN) is also an inactive class III/small station located in Kacang, X Koto Singkarak, Solok. The station, which has two rail lines with line 1 being a straight line, used to have the same function as Batu Tabal station.

From the observation of BTP Padang, the two stations still look the same as the last monitoring conducted earlier. Some assets such as tracks and buildings also appear to be safe, so no acts of theft and destruction of state assets were found there.

In addition to monitoring several stations in its area of operation, Satpel Sawahlunto, which is an extension of BTP Padang that is tasked with supervising the improvement, development, maintenance, care, and use of railway infrastructure on the inactive line, also regularly monitors the line using a special track monitoring vehicle or commonly called "lori" at several points where the truck can still pass. (RAH)