- विज्ञापन -
New Delhi: Mr. K. Raghavendra Rao, an academician from Mumbai penned down and explained how the transformation of railways is either been done or is being done.
Sharing his journey details from Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), he said En route he saw that station related amenities for passengers have either been done or it was being done. These included raising of platforms, display boards for trains, coach position indicators, continuous information being disseminated over the public address system besides CCTV cameras for video surveillance.
He further shared his thoughts on various aspects related to Railways in the article penned by him.
Besides, lifts and escalators were either already present or they were being constructed. Major stations had washable aprons which was useful in maintaining track side cleanliness besides minimising the number of rodents.
What has IR done
Record capex in the last decade has led to completion of several infrastructure projects in the high density and highly utilised networks across IR.
IR is very close electrifying 100 per cent of its broad gauge network. Besides, there has been significant progress in new line construction, gauge conversion, doubling and multi-tracking of routes and the commissioning of a major portion of the dedicated freight corridor, electronic interlocking, RRI, video surveillance systems at stations, wi-fi etc in the last decade.
Add to this, the introduction of Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat trains, clone trains and special fare trains now provide more options for travellers in busy routes.
Punctuality
According to data on punctuality from FY 17 to FY22 from IR’s year book, the punctuality index of IR showed the following fluctuating trend. 76.69 in FY 17, 71.39 in FY18 69.23 in FY 19 75.69 in FY 20 94.16 in FY21 (covid year lesser number of train services ) and 90.48 in FY22. The overall trend shows an increase in punctuality.
Presently, IR carries about 800 crore passengers annually and has plans to add another 200 crore over the next five years. IR runs 20,000 trains daily carrying over 2.5 crores passengers and 2.8 million tonnes of freight.
Cleanliness on board trains
The biggest challenge IR faces is to keep its toilets clean. Housekeeping staff on board trains do come and clean trains en route on premium trains such as Rajdhani, Duranto, Gatimaan, Shatabdi and Vande Bharat.
However, cleanliness of non-premium trains definitely has scope for improvement. Same is the case with cleanliness of linen and bed roll in premium trains versus non-premium trains.
There is also a need to re-look and optimise the time table of trains given that a lot of infrastructure works such as doubling, multi-tracking, freight corridor, gauge conversion, new lines and route electrification have already been done.
To conclude, IR’s transformation is about 60 per cent done. The remaining is a work in progress and if things go as envisaged, IR is on track to achieve its goal of net zero carbon emission by the year 2030.
