210 station cameras do not capture useful footage as their view is obstructed or they are not looking in right direction. They are now being re-positioned A review of video surveillance at railway stations has painted a grim picture: over 200 cameras are positioned so badly that they do not record any useful footage for security officials.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal launched a new mobile app ‘Rail Madad’ recently to streamline passenger grievance redressal. The Indian Railways has for the first time completely digitized the complaint management system.
Blankets for AC coaches will now be washed twice a month instead of existing practice of once in two months as the Railways has changed the material to make it washable-friendly.
Indian Railways offer concessions on ticket prices to different categories. The quantum of these concession ranges from 25 per cent to 100 per cent. These reductions in fares are available for senior citizens, disabled passengers, students, war widows, patients, among others.
The Ministry of Railways seems in no mood to relent on recalling officers from Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, a PSU under its control, even as its means reduction in staff strength at the IPO-bound company.
Having spent nearly Rs 1,370 crore on 136,985 railway bio-toilets–criticised for being “no better than septic tanks”–and after earmarking Rs 250 crore to install bio-toilets on remaining trains by March 2019, the railway ministry is now considering “upgraded” vacuum bio-toilets at a cost of Rs 6,250 crore.
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday announced that food and water will be provided to passengers if the train gets delayed during meal time.
The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Indian Railways coach manufacturing unit in Chennai, is all set to manufacture more than 3,000 coaches in the current financial year.
Heeding a PMO directive, Indian Railways has changed its earlier decision to provide escalators at a large number of stations. These will now only be provided at stations with minimum footfall of 100,000 passengers per day instead of 25,000 as previously envisaged.
Railway minister Piyush Goyal has set a target of doubling the national transporter’s revenues to Rs 4 lakh crore by 2025 to make it profitable by then. Over this period, the total investment by the railways would be about Rs 9 lakh crore, he said.
