‘Officials to interact with passengers’

‘Officials to interact with passengers’

Established in 2002, the Hajipur-headquartered East Central Railway (ECR) has achieved many a milestone. Railway projects worth about Rs 45,000 crore have been allocated to it. Kumod Verma caught up with ECR GM A K Mittal to know about the measures being initiated to better passenger amenities in the zone. Excerpts: 

ECR is observing passenger and customer facilitation fortnight from May 26 to June 9. What's the purpose? 

The idea is to know the needs of passengers. The railways will get an opportunity during the facilitation drive to understand the issues facing the passengers. 

Will you also travel by trains to interact with passengers and get a first-hand feel of the issues? 

Yes. The DRMs of all the ECR's five divisions and other senior officials would also meet passengers. Efforts will be made to solve their problems the same day. We are setting up booths at major stations to address their grievances on the spot. 

Punctuality, cleanliness, safety and supply of quality meals are the major concerns. What's the mechanism to maintain them? 

The zone has taken measures to improve punctuality of trains. Sectional speed of trains has been upped to 130 kmph. Our centralized control room is keeping a tab on the movement of each passenger train in the zone. We have outsourced contracts for maintaining cleanliness round the clock at all A1 and A class stations in the zone. All A1 and A stations having an annual earning of Rs 60 crore and Rs 8 crore respectively have been covered under this cleanliness drive. Safety measures have been beefed up at all unmanned level crossings. We are making surprise checks on running trains. 

Cost escalation has hit hard a few railway projects in Bihar. Is anything being done to expedite the completion of pending railway projects in the state? 

Constrains notwithstanding, the railways has decided to complete the pending railway projects in a phased manner. True, delay in land acquisitions has halted the pace of development work but that's a temporary phenomenon. The state government is extending cooperation to railways in completing the pending projects. The railways is hopeful of throwing open its portion of work on the Digha and Munger bridges by June. Projects related to new lines, doubling of tracks, gauge conversion and railway electrification work will also be completed soon. 

The issue of transfer of R Block-Digha Ghat railway line to the Bihar government for building an expressway has been hanging fire... 

The railways has agreed in principle to hand over the stretch to the state government as per railways norms. The ECR has already sent a proposal to this effect to the Railway Board for its approval. State transport minster Rajiv Ranjan Singh has also held a discussion with railway minster Suresh Prabhu in this connection. The railways has asked for land of equivalent worth in return. 

Traffic movement has reached a saturation point on the Mokama-Patna-Mughalsarai section, causing frequent detention of trains at outer signals near Patna Junction. Is there any proposal to build a third line on this busy section? 

A third line has been sanctioned between Dhanbad-Sonegarh, a distance of about 277km, in the current rail budget. However, a proposal for a third line between Mokama and Patna Junction is being prepared. 

What, according to you, is the ECR's biggest achievement since its inception in 2002? 

The answer is, spectacular increase in revenue from both passenger and goods segments. It has crossed Rs 10,000 crore-mark per annum, thereby securing a berth for the ECR in the elite club of few railway zones which earn Rs 10,000 crore and more per annum.

Source: Times Of India.