S. N. Agrawal takes over as a New Member Staff, Railway Board

New Delhi: S. N. Agrawal has taken over as Member Staff, Railway Board and Ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India on 20.07.2018. Prior to this, Shri Agrawal was General Manager of South Eastern Railway, Kolkata.

S. N. Agrawal, a Civil Engineer, belongs to the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE) of 1980 batch. He has rich and varied experience of working in several key posts in Western Railway, Central Railway, Southern Railway, North Central Railway, South East Central Railway, RDSO etc., including the post of Divisional Railway Manager, Nagpur and as Principal Chief Engineer, Western Railway, Mumbai.

Shri Agrawal has undertaken various professional trainings both in India and abroad viz. USA, Australia and France. He has also presented many Technical Papers in International Seminars. Shri Agrawal has keen interest in sports and socio-cultural activities.

South Eastern Railway has taken initiatives to encourage cashless transaction

Kolkata: South Eastern Railway has taken initiatives to encourage cashless transaction at booking offices, ticket counters and parcel offices for purchase of railway tickets and booking of luggage through Point of Sale machines spread over 4 divisions of its jurisdictions.

As of now, 488 Point of Sale (POS) Machines have been installed at Passenger Reservation System (PRS) Counters, Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) Counters, Parcel offices at Metropolitan City Stations, Suburban and non-suburban sections of South Eastern Railway. Initially the facility was extended to all counters of PRS and this has also been extended in a greater way at the counter of Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS). Parcel offices are now equipped with POS machines and South Eastern Railway has also introduced such facility in non-suburban sections along with some static catering units.

Passengers may use Point of Sale machines to purchase season tickets also for their convenience apart from UTS mobile Apps, which have been introduced in all sections of SER jurisdiction in recent past.

The objective of railways is to its ticket sale system to be completely cashless to reduce higher cost of managing ticket windows. Cash dealing in reservation offices and at stations is tough task for the booking officials. It will also be beneficial for Booking and Parcel Clerks as well if railway provides enough Swipe Machines across the Railways.

SER runs 478 special trains & provides 1939 extra coaches in exicting mail/exp trains

Kolkata: With a view to clear extra rush of passengers during festive and summer holidays in the first quarter of the current fiscal i.e from April to June 2018, South Eastern Railway has been running 478 special trains towards different destinations originating mainly from Howrah, Santragachi, Shalimar, Tatanagar and Ranchi/Hatia.

This apart, 1939 extra coaches have been attached to the existing Mail/Express trains of South Eastern Railway to clear heavy rush and to minimize the huge waitlisted passengers towards various destination during the period from April to June 2018.

By dint of these huge special trains and attachment of large number of extra coaches in existing important Mail/Express trains, South Eastern Railway has been able to generate Rs. 24.77 Crores in the first three months of the current financial year in 2018-19.

SER provides App-Based cab aggregation from Santragachi

Kolkata:  In order to give more relief to the passengers, Kharagpur Division of South Eastern Railway has arranged for aggregation of App-Based Taxis from Santragachi Station. Passengers alighting at Santragachi station from mail/express and suburban trains can easily go to their destinations at various places of Kolkata and Howrah by way of hiring App-Based taxi services. This kind of App-Based Cabs will spare the passengers from uncertainty to get convenience after arrival at Santragachi station.

Booking of App Cabs is easy and kilometer based. Kharagpur Division of South Eastern Railway and the Authority of App Cab services have made an agreement and space at Santragachi station has been provided to operate the App Cab services. At present 5 App Cabs can be parked to drop and go on hire.

Making App-Based Cab services available at Santragachi Station is a long standing demand of passengers and App-Cab Drivers can easily enter the Railway premises for dropping and taking the passengers from extremely busy Santragachi station.

Growth in SER’s earnings from passenger traffic

Kolkata: During the first quarter i.e. April-June of current financial year (2018-19), South Eastern Railway has earned Rs. 538.58 crores from originating passenger traffic which is Rs. 20.08 crores more than the corresponding period of last year i.e. 2017-18 thus registering a growth of 3.87%.

This growth in passenger earnings has been possible due to increase in number of passengers carried during the first quarter of the current financial year. During April-June of the current financial year, South Eastern Railway carried 66.72million originating passengers as against 65.60 million originating passengers carried during the corresponding period of last financial year achieving a growth of 1.72%. Out of total 66.72 million originating passengers, 34.16 million were suburban passengers while 32.56 million were non-suburban passengers.

SER RPF personnel realised an amount of Rs. 62.87 lakh & huge contraband goods

Kolkata: Railway Protection Force of South Eastern Railway has been playing active role in addressing security concerns and ensuring secured environment for passenger over the railways. The vast reserve of railway property is required to be protected by the RPF with utmost sincerity and alertness.  With the increase in the quantum of traffic over the railways, incidence of theft and pilferage also spread over the railways. SER’s RPF team has successfully kept on guarding the railway property against theft and other crimes.

During the month of June 2018, SER’s RPF Personnel has done a lot of security work to foil the criminal activity over four Divisions of this railway. The key security activities during the month of June are given as under:-

* 18 criminals were arrested for theft of passenger belongings at different stations over SER.

* 43 numbers of bags and belongings were recovered. This apart 900 grams of opium, 25 kg Ganja, 240 bags of Bhang, 18 bottles of foreign liquor and 24 bundles of Kendu leaves were also realised.

* 46 offenders were arrested under RP (UP) Act for unlawful possession of railway property and an amount of Rs. 2,57,820/-was realised.
* 5500 offenders including 2 touts and 631 unauthorized venders/hawkers were booked under different sections of the Railway Act with realization of fine amounting to Rs. 11, 63, 810/-

* 23,879 ticketless travellers were apprehended during the joint drives conducted by RPF and Commercial Department and an amount of Rs. 48,66,135/- was realized as fine from them.

* 20 minor Boys and 22 minor Girls were rescued by RPF Personnel and handed over to their parents/NGO viz. child line etc.