New Delhi: Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal recently held a high level review meeting with senior railway officials and all General Managers of Zonal Railways/Production Units and Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) through Video Conferencing in Rail Bhawan.
During the meeting, Goyal called upon the Zonal Railway officials to work as a team to achieve ambitious targets set by Railway Board. He also indicated that a lot is required to be achieved which requires active participation of all. He expressed the view that collective effort will help to have a collective vision for Railways, a vision which would be all inclusive with collective wisdom and collective will. He exhorted all the officials to perform with full dynamism to transform Indian Railways into one of the best Railways in the world.
Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways urged the Railway officials to work in the direction of transforming Indian Railways as the world class transporter. He directed the officials to ensure that Indian Railways reaches out to the poorest of the poor so that they may also travel by Rail. The Minister insisted that Safety, Cleanliness and hygiene in Railways should continue to be key focus areas.
The agenda of the meeting was safety performance, punctuality, capacity enhancement and other various ongoing developmental projects in Indian Railways. While reviewing the performance of Zonal Railways during the current year so far, Chairman, Railway Board gave directions to General Managers for close monitoring of projects related to safety in train operations. He emphasized on elimination of Manned Level crossings and construction of Road over Bridge (RoBs)/Road Under Bridges (RuBs) at a swift pace in each zone. He expressed his satisfaction on progress of elimination of Manned Level crossings (MLC) in first two months of this financial year as compared to corresponding period in previous year. In two months, 229 MLCs have been eliminated as compared to 65 Nos. in last year.
Vinod Kumar Yadav, Chairman, Railway Board directed General Managers to enhance their efforts to further improve punctuality & minimize time loss in case of delayed trains. He stressed that Zonal Railways should plan safety and infrastructure works in a co-ordinated manner so that contiguous works are taken up together on a particular date/period so that the adverse impact on punctuality due to regulation of trains can be mitigated. Action should also be taken for improving asset reliability. He urged all General Managers of Production Units of Indian Railways to work in full potential to meet the demand of rolling stock in a timely manner.
Reviewing the infrastructure creation projects, Yadav directed all the officers to ensure timely completion of ongoing infrastructure projects and meet the targets in stipulated deadlines. He stressed on advance planning of the projects before their implementation so the projects may be completed in a time bound manner. New Line Commissioning, Gauge conversion, Doubling, Electrification projects are to be expedited.
Yadav reiterated that the sustained focus on safety, punctuality, infrastructure creation, cleanliness, hygiene in general compartments and passengers comfort will remain the priority areas for Indian Railways. During the meeting, Chairman, Railway Board has directed all officers to travel in the trains and interact with passenger so the real time feedback is obtained.