Trains over NCR, spanning across UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, MP most delayed: Min

The North Central Railway, which spans over parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with about 3,062 km route, was the worst performing zone in terms of punctuality while the Western Railway toped the chart, the government said Friday.

Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain informed the Rajya Sabha that the zone had the worst punctuality figures in the last three years with an average punctuality of 47.12 per cent.

In 2018-2019 (up to November), the performance of the zone stood at 47.41 per cent.

In the South East Central Zone headquartered at Bilaspur and comprising Bilaspur, Nagpur and Raipur divisions, the punctuality of trains has become consistently worse. While it was 83.49 per cent in 2015-2016, it came down to 80.05 per cent in 2017-2018 and in the current year till November it has reduced to 56.55 per cent.

"Trains do run late owing to various factors which include railway and non-railway factors such as asset failure, capacity constraints, damage to track due to breaches, accidents, cattle runover, electricity grid failure, miscreant activities, alarm chain pulling, bad weather including fog, natural calamities...", he said.

The delay of trains over the North Central Railway is a cause for concern as this zone is considered to be the heartbeat of railways spread as it is across three divisions - Allahabad, Jhansi and Agra. It extends from Ghaziabad in the north to Mughalsarai in the east on New Delhi Howrah trunk route and from Palwal to Bina on New Delhi Mumbai/ Chennai corridor.

The punctuality performance of other significant zones this year till November are - Northern Zone at 57.21 per cent, East Central at 63.22 per cent and North Eastern at 67.45 per cent. The best performing zone was the Western Railway with a punctuality figure of 91.87 per cent.