Existing Indian Railways Network not Open for Privatization: Gowda
Railways
Allocated 40 Per Cent More Budget for Cleanliness
Indian
Railways Taking Determined Stride Towards Running High Speed Bullet Trains
Railway
Minister Inaugurates the 59th Annual Railway National Awards Function-2014 at
Bangalore
The
Minister of Railways, Shri D.V.Sadananda
Gowda inaugurated the 59th Annual Railway
National Awards Function - 2014 in Bangalore today. Also present among others
on the occasion were Shri Arunendra
Kumar, Chairman, Railway Board, Shri V.K.Gupta, Member Engineering, Shri
Alok Johri, Member
Mechanical, Shri A.K.Mital,
Member Staff, Shri P.C.Gajbhiye,
Secretary, Railway Board and Shri P.K.Saxena,
General Manger, South Western Railway. Shri Gowda gave away National Awards for Outstanding Service –
2014 to a total number of 132 railway officers/staff from all over the country.
The prestigious Govind Vallabh
Pant Shield for the best overall performance amongst the best zonal railways
and production units was bagged by West Central Railway (headquartered at
Jabalpur).
I wish this function gives all our railwaymen an encouragement to work hard, work efficiently
and work innovatively to bring smiles on the faces of our travelling passengers
and our freight customers. In our rich and eventful journey of 161 long years,
we have covered many significant milestones. The old has given way to the new
and we have embarked on the path of modernizing every aspect of Railway
operations. We are working on high speed rail corridors, on new designs of more
efficient wagons, on the most efficient anti- collision devices like TCAS and
TPWS, on new methods for ultrasonic detection of rail fracture to avoid
derailments. We are progressing on dedicated freight corridor aimed at
transforming goods movement in the country. We run superfast trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani and are
taking determined stride towards running High Speed bullet trains. We can boast
of Engineering marvels like Jammu & Kashmir rail link and railway projects
in North Eastern region; Computerized passenger reservation system and ticket
booking through internet is getting a boost. In fact all aspects of Railway
working, be it improvement in productivity, economy in expenditure,
increasing railway earnings, curbing ticketless travel, improving operations,
maintaining and improving the life of assets and aspects of security/safety,
developing world class stations, completion of crucial projects – right from
policies to processes and procedures have seen major initiatives and
innovations these days.
Following is the text of the
speech of the railway Minister:-
“
Our new government at the centre got
a thundering mandate from the people of India and under the leadership of our
Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi
ji, we have vowed to live up to their expectations.
Indian Railways run more than 12000 passenger carrying trains and more than
more than 7000 freight trains every day. What are required are not a few
changes here and there but holistic planning and comprehensive measures that
shall enable the Indian Railways to match the best in the world. We have to
work in this direction on a day to day basis.
I am happy to share with you that
many of the budget announcements are in various stages of implementation and
remaining will have to be taken up within a month. Implementation of the budget
announcements is strictly monitored. The performance of the Railways on almost
all the parameters has been steadily improving as you can gauge from the
improvements in efficiency parameters in the last 4 months. Indian Railways is making
efforts to evolve new methods of resource mobilization. Recently during the
talks of Hon’ble Prime Minister with Japan and China
we have identified some mutual areas of cooperation with these two countries.
One of the major initiatives of our
government is to permit foreign direct investment (FDI) in our railway sector
to bring much needed investment in the railway infrastructure especially the
big ticket projects like High speed rail corridor among others. Permitting FDI
will facilitate foreign investors to compete for such mega projects, either on
their own or by joining hands with domestic investors. This in no way leads to
privatization of existing Indian Railways Network or its core activities.
At the cost of repetition, it is made clear that the existing Indian Railways
Network, its operations and its core activities will remain with the Indian
Railways only and not open for privatization. This will also not affect the
strategic role played by Railways in the national interest as well as its social
obligations in any way.
In order to provide more hassle-free
services to railway users, Indian Railways have launched new IT
initiatives/applications developed by CRIS. It also meets Hon’ble
Prime Minister’s dream project of Digital India. Next Generation
e-ticketing (NGeT), Freight E-Demand
system, Freight E-Diversion system, Go India Smart card, Train
Enquiry Mobile App are few of the initiatives taken up by Indian Railways
in the past 4 months.
We have taken a number of initiatives
in the field of catering which is one of the major areas of complaints by the
passengers. We have so far imposed exemplary penalties on 12 contractors for
their lapses in providing quality food. We have strengthened our catering
complaint no. 1800-111- 321. We have introduced on pilot basis precooked foods
and e catering systems. We are planning a third party audit of the catering
services so as to ensure improvement. I am sure all my railwaymen
will bring in a remarkable change in the Q & Q of the food we serve for our
customers.
My dear friends we must realize that
it is not just private sector which treats customer as king but Indian Railways
must resolve today that we are no less to private sector in keeping the
customers’ interest first. In the fast transforming world of web based
communication through social media, Railways has ensured its presence on social
media platforms by launching You tube, Facebook and
Twitter. This would help us to directly connect
with the public.
On October 2nd, Indian
Railways launched the biggest ever cleanliness campaign all over the country in
line with the Union government’s Swachh Bharat
campaign. The entire railway family rose to the occasion and performed ShramDan for ensuring cleanliness. Cleanliness should
become part of our ethos and values and should be a continuous feature of our
functioning. The railway staff and the railway users together can make a
big difference in the field of cleanliness and can change the face of the
nation. We have allocated 40 per cent more budget for cleanliness this and if
need be we would also increase it. We would also set up one dedicated dept for
House Keeping with the presence from the level of
stations to Board so that this business is taken seriously and those manning
the dept become accountable.”
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