Maligaon, September 27 (MExN): 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 with all General Managers (GMs) of Zonal Railways/Production Units and Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) on performance review 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.
A press release from Subhanan Chanda,Chief Public Relations Officer stated that the Minister acknowledged the officers for the 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.
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 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.
Yadav emphasized on expeditious completion of safety works like elimination of Manned Level crossings and construction of Road over Bridge (RoBs)/Road Under Bridges (RuBs), interlocking of heavy Manned level Crossings, elimination of old mechanical signalling by electronic signalling etc.
Yadav congratulated the zones for good progress on 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. Yadav acknolwdged 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. 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 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi. Various initiatives being taken in this direction include 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 track side nurseries.
