Railways need to move towards ‘Ease of living for citizens’ -V.K.Yadav
CRB gave directions to GMs for close monitoring of projects related to safety
Work towards improving safety, punctuality, cleanliness, upkeep of stations, trains and passenger comfort
Railway Board conducts a high-level review meeting with GMs/DRM
New Delhi: Minister of State of Railway, Suresh C. Angadi, Chairman, Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav along with other Railway Board Members held a Video Conference meeting review with all General Managers (GMs) of Zonal Railways, Production Units and Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) on performance till August.
The review covered issues of safety, punctuality, freight loading, passenger traffic, infrastructure projects, locomotive and coach production and other ongoing developmental projects in Indian Railways.
MOSR Suresh C. Angadi complimented the officers for the excellent performance of Zones and Divisions in August 2019 and gave directions to work towards further improving safety, punctuality, cleanliness, and upkeep of stations and trains and passenger comfort so as to meet the expectations of the people. Shri Angadi emphasized that all officials of Indian Railways should work as a team to achieve the goals and targets in a time-bound manner for the advancement of Indian Railways and the country.
While reviewing the detail performance of Zonal Railways during the current year the Chairman, Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav gave directions to General Managers for close monitoring of projects related to ensuring safety in train operations. Shri Yadav emphasized on expeditious completion of safety works like the elimination of Manned Level crossings and construction of Road over Bridge (RoBs)/Road Under Bridges (RuBs), the interlocking of heavy Manned level Crossings, elimination of old mechanical signaling by electronic signaling, etc.
Shri Yadav congratulated the Zones for good progress on the elimination of Manned Level crossings (MLC) which is a major safety improvement initiative. 534 MLCs have been eliminated during April-August 2019 compared to 167 during the same period last year. Shri Yadavapplauded the officers for bringing significant improvement in punctuality of mail/express trains which has reached a level of 74% compared to 67% last year. Further, the minutes lost per train have also reduced significantly. Shri Yadav also complimented Railtel and Divisions for providing free Wi-Fi for passengers over 4,926 stations.
In the meeting, Zones and Divisions were directed to complete all preparations with regard to the 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi. Various initiatives being taken in this direction include the elimination of single-use plastic from railway premises, provision of bottle crushing machines, cleanliness of stations, trains and railway premises, tree plantation and development of 150 trackside nurseries.
NCR’s Agra and Allahabad division in top 10 KPI list of Indian Railways
On 25.09.19 a video conference by Minister of State Suresh C Angadi, Chairman Railway Board V K Yadav and all Board Members with zonal railways and divisions held. At the outset, Chairman Railway Board congratulated all divisions and zones on improved Key Performance Index as KPI of 38 divisions in August 2019 was more than 80% of total 68 division, against earlier only 15 divisions were above 80%. North Central Railway under the guidance of its General Manager Rajiv Chaudhry has performed exceptionally well as Agra and Allahabad secured a place among the top 10 divisions of IR and only NCR and WR had 02 divisions in top 10 list.
Minister of State Shri Angadi wished Happy Dushera to all Railwaymen in advance. He emphasized that railway personnel will have to work harder to surpass dreams associated with the railway of the citizens of India. Chairman, Railway Board emphasized that safety remain our foremost priority and urged upon divisions to complete all safety-related works as per assigned targets. Important safety works flagged in the video conference were interlocking of Manned LC above 50000 TVU, fitting of fire and smoke detector in coaches. He further added that the disaster management plan of each division must be updated and mock drill of ARTs and ARMEs should be carried out on a regular basis.
Chairman, Railway Board conveyed that Railway needs to move towards “Ease of living for citizens” which is also desired by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi. Chairman Railway Board emphasized that this will require massive capacity argumentation for which action plan for 05-10 years must be made and implemented. He added that eastern and western dedicated freight corridors commissioning, up-gradation of the existing grand quadrilateral route of Delhi-Howrah & Delhi-Mumbai routes to 160kmph, elimination of all manned level crossing on major routes, modernization of Signalling System etc.should be done on a priority basis. Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors are targeted to be commissioned by Dec -21. Approx 58 % of EDFC falls on NCR territory and a major section of EDFC between Khurja-Bhadan is expected to be opened for commercial operation very shortly. He also mentioned that Private train operations and corporatization of PUs are also important items and need to imbibe in the right perspective.
Chairman, Railway Board complemented all railways on improved punctuality performance. North Central Railway with sustained efforts has registered improvement of 9.44 % in punctuality over last year which is 2nd best performance among all zonal railways. NCR’s performance on punctuality front is very important, keeping in view the operation on supersaturated routes which are operating at 160 % of it’s designed capacity. Sustained efforts by Agra, Allahabad and Jhansi divisions with close monitoring from NCR Headquarters has paid this rich dividend. On Swachhata front various activities underway in Swachhata hi Seva and Swachhata Pakhwara were discussed and all zonal Railways complemented by Hon’ble Minister of State and Chairman, Railway Board for works done on cleanliness front. Advisor EnHM informed that detailed modalities for stopping the use of single-use plastic below 50-micron thickness with effect from 2nd October 2019. He also added that bottle crushing machines shall be installed at all major stations for which revised guidelines are being issued.
General Manager, North Central Railway Rajiv Chaudhry during the conference informed Railway Board that North Central Railway is moving forward in punctuality improvement despite saturated sections and registered punctuality of 64.3 % in Aug-19 against 59.6 % in July -19. Shri Chaudhry further informed Railway Board that with commissioning of EDFC between Bhadhan – Khurja section, there will be the capacity to run more Coaching trains from Kanpur for which terminal facilities argumentation are being planned. He also assured the board that with the replacement of Route Relay Interlocking at Allahabad more trains can be originated from Allahabad too. He also apprised board that adequate Railway land is available at Jhansi and coach maintenance facilities should be developed. On assistance front, General Manager Shri Chaudhry requested the Board to allot new accident relief train for Jhansi and hopper wagons for ballast movement, etc.