Text of the Speech of Minister of Railways Shri D.V.Sadananda Gowda at the Press Conference on 8th September 2014
The Minister of Railways Shri D.V.Sadananda Gowda highlighted the achievements/initiatives of Railways during May 2014 August 2014. Following is broadly the text of Shri Gowdas speech:-
I took charge of Ministry of Railways in the last week of May this year. This was a huge responsibility of leading a huge organisation which is hailed as a life line of the nation. Indian Railways run more than 12000 passenger carrying trains and more than more than 7000 freight trains everyday. With in around one month of our taking over we were required to present Railway Budget. Under the directions of the Honble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, we presented the budget to take the Railway Ministry to new era of connecting the people across the country with all necessary requirements of the people..
Before we took over charge of the Railway Ministry, there was a tragic railway accident involving Gorakhdham Express in Uttar Pradesh which claimed many innocent lives. This saddened me. My two cabinet colleagues Shri Manoj Sinha and Shri Kalraj Mishra visited the accident site. So the first challenge we faced was safety. Hence, immediately on assuming charge we declared that Safety of the passengers will be our primary concern. So we will take care of safety and security of the people.
First meeting which I had with the Railway Board was on the issue of Safety. I called upon Railway Board to take all steps to ensure safe operations. Next, I directed the Railway Board to examine the recommendations of Kakodkar Safety Committee with regard to their feasibility and implementation. I have also given instructions to expedite the introduction of indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) to avoid collision. We are also working on Simulation Centre and Safety Villages. A safety week was also observed all across Indian Railways in the month of June. We have also started modern Vehicle Borne Ultrasonic Flow Detection system to detect rail and weld fractures for ensuring safety.
Another area of concern is loss of innocent lives at unmanned level crossings. While Railways is taking steps to eliminate unmanned level crossings which will still take 5 to 6 years as per the availability of funds, till then it is necessary to educate road users for observing safety precautions. Safety is one of the crucial aspects and we have attached utmost importance. During this period 176 unmanned level crossings were eliminated against the target of 125 and 52 manned level crossings were closed against the target of 35. Works for the construction of 249 RUBs and 30 ROBs have been taken up against the target of 130 and 25. Also, a system of gate counsellors is being introduced for the remaining unmanned level crossings so that the chances of accidents are reduced to large extent till either RUB or ROB is constructed.
About 80 per cent of the budget announcements are in various stages of implementation and remaining will also be taken up with in a month. For the first time, the implementation of the budget announcements is being monitored by the Minister. Ever since the budget was presented, the performance of Railways has been improving which is reflected by the improvements in efficiency parameters in the last 100 days/three months. Freight loading has increased by 5% , freight earning has increased by 12.3 % , passenger numbers by 4.73 % and passenger earnings by 23 % over previous year.
The efficiency figures have shown such a marked increase because there has been aggressive promotion of premium trains- 29 have been run in the past three months- bringing in important earnings, 7 new trains have been introduced in this period, approximately 25000 extra coaches have been attached as a passenger facAnchorility and more than 8000 trips of special trains have been run over Indian Railways. This has not only helped the railways but have also facilitated the passengers in their movement tremendously.
Inauguration of Katra Rail Link by flagging off the Shakthi express by Honorouble PM Narendra Modiji was a major milestone for Indian Railways. We have also taken an innovative step of introducing composite Rail cum Road Ticket to provide the passengers a seamless travel facility up to Kashmir.We will be introducing another novel facility of booking a single ticket from anywhere in the country up to Kashmir and if there is demand then passengers will have comfort of travelling in the same coach up to Katra.
One of the major initiatives of our Government under Narendra Modi ji is to permit FDI in Railways to bring much needed investment in the Railway Infrastructure. The FDI will come in handy for the big ticket projects like High Speed Rail as well as for the remaining portion of the DFC apart from capacity augmentation projects like doubling and introduction of Automatic Signalling system.
Indian Railways is planning to convert signalling system to automatic signalling completely which alone can result augmentation of capacity by 2 -3 times and this again is being planned through either PPP and FDI.
Cleanliness is another area where we have given our attention most. Railways have been asked to take up the cleanliness drive on a mission mode and the same is being monitored from Railway Board. Inspections: Inspections of stations for cleanliness by senior officers has been activated, so far665 stations across all zonal railways have been thoroughly inspected by the highest levels in a fortnight long special cleanliness drive launched on 6th June 2014. The cleanliness activities will now be monitored with the aid of CCTVs. Bio- Toilets: Introduction of more and more bio-toilets is the only way to make the tracks in the Railway station area clean and neat. About 300 coaches have been fitted in the past three months with bio-toilets. These are special types of indigenously built toilets with hardly any discharge. A detailed plan is being worked out to fit all trains running in one sector with bio-toilets so that all the stations in that sector will achieve 100% cleanliness.On board housekeeping services, already employed for trains, have been extended to more trains bringing the number up to 446 trains. OBHS has received good feedback from passengers, we will be covering all new mail, express and premium trains with this facility so that passengers are satisfied with cleanliness of the trains.
The budget allocation for cleanliness has been increased by 40% over the previous year.
IT Initiatives: We have rolled out many passenger friendly IT initiatives as well as IT initiatives to improve the revenue earnings from the freight operations. The following are the new initiatives:
Next Generation e-ticketing (NGeT); NGet system which can book 7200 online tickets as against of 2000 tickets per minute in the previous system and can now attend to 2,00,000 enquiries instead of 50000 per minute has been launched a month ago. A record 6,24,855 tickets were booked in one day on 27/8/14 through this new system.
Freight E-Demand system; An on-line system of Registration for rakes and wagons has been launched.
Freight E-Diversion system; The system will allow authorized Railways personnel to issue diversion orders and notify controllers by integration with the Control Office Application.
Go India Smart card: This is a pan India smart card to enable passengers to pay for tickets for long distance reserved, unreserved, and suburban journeys and the same is being taken up as a pilot project.
Train Enquiry Mobile App; Indian Railways has enhanced the Train Enquiry system by developing a Mobile App and a desktop application for Windows 8 platform.
Yatri Ticket Sewa Kendra Scheme: This scheme is aimed at taking the ticket reservation system further closer to the passengers. The new scheme will help us increase number of reservation counters in the country to reduce the rush as well as to take the reservation system closer to the passengers. Under this scheme the reservation counters which are on par with the Railways run reservation system will be allowed to be opened by the authorised agents of Indian Railways on PPP model.
Preparations for implementation of this scheme are being taken up and will be formally launched with in 2-3 weeks.
Semi High Speed Rail System:
Along with our commitment to take up bullet train project in the county, IR will also take steps to introduce semi high speed trains between important cities in 9 sectors which are announced in Budget. A successful trial was conducted between Delhi and Agra in the month of July, remaining sectors are also being targeted for the trail shortly. This initiative will reduce the travel between these cites considerably.
Solar Energy:
Use of Solar energy is being given top priority by our Honorouble PM Narendra Modiji. In this direction, Railways have already taken steps in this direction.
A solar system with the capacity of 2.1 Megawatt has been installed in the Rail Coach Factory, Rae Bareli and the whole factory runs on the solar power itself.
Similarly, work of installing solar panels on the Katra Railway station has been initiated and will be completed by December this year. Installing solar panel on all building and Railway stations will be taken up through PPP model for which a comprehensive policy is being prepared and the same would be finalised with in a month. The work of installing the solar panels is likely to start by the end of the year.
Speeding up the Projects in North Eastern Region:
The north-eastern states rail connectivity is a mission area for our government. The works in the north east have taken seen maximum speed in construction activity. On 11th August 2014, Meghalaya got its rail connectivity with the completion of the Dubhnoi-Mendipathar lines. Three more lines into the North east will be completed this year. Southern Assam will soon be brought under the broad gauge network with the start of the longest ever Gauge conversion project between Lumding and Silchar measuring 210 kms.
Premium Trains and double decker trains were introduced to cater to the demands of the passengers.
Improving Catering:
Catering quality is a source major complaint from passengers next only to cleanliness. Our govt has decided to bring in a change which passengers want.
The strategy being planned is to provide the passengers a choice. Passengers can choose: either pre-cooked ready to eat food items or order for food from a local food chain in the town where the train is passing by or the food supplied by the caterer on the train. The passengers can also book the meal when they book the ticket.Third party audit system will be in place shortly so that the quality is assured.
Apart from third party audit, an automated system of passenger feed back on food quality has been introduced. This feed back system will be extended to cover atleast 10 per cent of the passengers initially so that the quality can be judged perspective of the passengers. Severe action is being taken on the caterers against whom the complaints are found true, already heavy fines upto Rs.1 lakh have been imposed in few cases.
Movement of Milk and other essential commodities:
Indian railways have focused on Milk transport and have decided to run an additional train between Palanpur and Baraut along with the existing 3 trains. NDDB and GCMMFL have also placed an order to manufacture of 30 high capacity Milk Tankers of 44,6000 litres against the present capacity of 40,000 litres. Indian Railways have also identified locations for provision of refrigerated storage for storing perishable produce of farmers prior to transportation.
Skill Upgradation:
Skill upgradation of the manpower is a crucial aspect for any organization especially technology intensive organisations like Railways. Various steps like tieup with IITs for special courses and training of ground level staff in association with local technical institutions are being taken up. Setting up of specialized educational institution has been our dream and in that direction steps are being taken to set up Rail University. One team of officers have been deputed to visit Rail University in China and upon receiving the report further steps will be taken.
Revenue Generation Initiatives:
Special Design for Salt Wagons: New wagons have been designed with FRP lining and sliding roof for transportation of salt. The lower tare weight will permit higher loads therefore greater revenues.
A special Freight incentive scheme has been launched to monetize the empty flow of wagons by offering automatic rebate to customers moving commodities on traditional empty flow routes.
Advertisements on the wagons are being explored as an option for increasing the revenue. So far, 14972 wagons have been offered for advertisements out of which 600 wagons are already under contract for advertisement.
Major Activities to be launched Shortly:
i. Separate Dept for House Keeping with staff from stations level to Board level to keep up the Cleanliness of stations and Trains is being set up. The dedicated inter-disciplinary manpower which will be created out of existing staff and will be entrusted with the only responsibility of looking after Cleanliness which is currently looked after by too many agencies along with their regular duties.
ii Indian Railways is launching anew online software system for submission of applications for sanction of RUB and ROB. This system will reduce delays and also status can be known online. This will not only make the process of sanction faster but also make it transparent as process simplification has been done through govt process re-engineering.
This online system will be modified to handle various permissions local authorities require from Railways for crossing the railway line for water supply projects and UGD projects.
iii. IR will take up a major Cleanliness Campaign on October 2nd. The campaign will involve all 13 lakh employees and officers. The campaign will focus more on Shramdaan rather than just awareness campaigns. All the senior officers of Board have been assigned various zones and divisions for participation and monitoring the effectiveness of the campaign.
iv. Model Concession Agreements are being finalised and would be made available to the investors with in a month in order to facilitate them to invest in specific projects through PPP model. We are targeting more investment in infrastructure from customers of Railways this year for first mile and last mile connectivity. Later we will focus on investment in infrastructure in the over congested sections.
v. Development of World Class Railway Stations did not take off so far because of lack of participation from local municipal corporations and delays in plan approvals. In order to over come this problem, a new approach of taking up development stations in association with local municipal corporations through PPP model is being launched. Surat and Mangalore have come forward where in the Corporations will take care of land use change and plan approvals.
More number of stations will be taken up wherever the local Municipal Corporations and State Governments come forward.
We are working hard to see that whatever was announced in the rail budget is implemented and more resources are mobilised.
We will be setting up a short duration committee on Resource Mobilisation which would basically give immediately implementable recommendations so that we are in a position to mobilise the funds for various projects.
Thanks a lot for all your co-operation in giving adequate media coverage to all our efforts and programmes.
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