Punctuality of trains need to be improved, says Goyal to Railways

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways & Coal reiterated that punctuality of the trains needs to be improved without affecting the routine maintenance work related to Safety of passengers. Goyal reviewed the performance of three Zonal Railways viz North Central Railways, North Eastern Railways & East Central Railways with the General Managers of each zone along with officials of Zonal Railway in Rail Bhavan yesterday. In this meeting, Goyal also laid out few measures that Zonal Railways can follow in regards to punctuality of the trains. 

Taking slew of decisions to improve punctuality, Goyal has instructed that the third line project between Allahabad- Mughalsarai is to be taken on high priority to minimize congestion in Delhi- Mughalsarai route.

He mphasized that if required additional rakes/coaches shall be given to Zones to improve punctuality & minimize time loss in case of delayed trains arriving at terminating stations. All Production Units of Indian Railways to work in full potential to meet the demand of coaches by Zonal Railways.

"Construction of Limited Height Subways to be strictly monitored and timely executed," says Goyal. 

Goyal directed that all Zonal Railways should do root cause analysis based upon passenger feedback to identify the real cause of passenger inconvenience & take the corrective steps. For real time monitoring, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology should be used in the locomotives. 

Further, Goyal urged General Managers to holistically plan weekly integrated traffic blocks of long duration. During these blocks all maintenance works related to engineering, signal, electrification, bridge, track renewal should take place simultaneously.

He said, "These planned integrated blocks may be advertised well in advance so that the passengers are well informed about the blocks and any inconvenience to them may be minimized."

Goyal also directed in regards to safety and payment options in Indian trains. He stressed on the need to provide Point of Sale (PoS) machines in all Mail/ Express trains so that the bill can be given to every customer.

All stations across Indian Railways should have separate toilets for men & women  with proper lighting, water facility, facility for divyaang & proper cleanliness. He urged that every coach conductor shall be given a hand held terminal for the optimum occupancy of vacant berth during the journey. He stressed on installation of CCTVs in kitchens of IRCTC so it may be remotely monitored by the concerned officials.