NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Rail journey is set to get better for passengers in the coming years with the Railway Ministry planning to provide refurbished coaches having world-class amenities such as wi-fi, entertainment, vending machines and auto doors. All together over 40,000 coaches will be revamped.
Ticket booking will also be hassle free as high-speed web interface, POS terminals and ATMs will cut down to less than five minutes the waiting time.
These are some of medium term goals of Indian Railways, revealed the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to Goans at a public function on Wednesday.
To beef up the service, over 100 stations will be modernised to world-class standards.
Rural stations will have internet-enabled kiosks that will double up to dispense information on government schemes, said Prabhu. The plan for revival of railways includes reduction in fuel costs, controlling staff costs by rationalising recruitment, increased share of non-core commodities such as white goods, automobiles, etc, he said, adding, in the long-term the railways intend to increase the share of transport by capturing new traffic.
The Minister was jointly felicitated by GCCI and International Centre Goa for his significant contribution to turnaround of the Indian Railways in three years of the BJP rule.
Prabhu reviewed his performance through release of book ‘Three Progressive Years of Railways.’ He said that he had taken over the sector facing overstretched infrastructure and trains that were underutilised.
“The turnaround came by making structural reforms. The ministry accelerated capital investments by getting funding of Rs 15 lakh crore from LIC,” he said.
During the three years, the railways eliminated all medium gauge lines in northeast India and commissioned broad gauge.
“By 2020, all capital cities of north eastern India will be connected with broad gauge lines,” he said.
Liberalising the freight sector and reducing freight rates to grab an increased share in the transport were some of the radical decisions taken by his ministry, said Prabhu.
During his speech, the Railway Minister touched on the problems faced by railways.
He said that while freight load increased by 1344 per cent and passenger load by 1642 per cent, the tracks grew by only 23 per cent.
