Railway Board chief holds meeting with GMs

Hyderabad, Sept 4 (INN): Railway Board Chairman A.K.Mital held a high level Full Board meeting on Friday with the General Managers (GM's) of Five Zones viz., East Coast Railway, Southern Railway, South Central Railway, South East Central Railway and South Western Railway at Rail Nilayam in Secunderabad.

The full board meeting was held to review the performance of the five zones during the current fiscal and deliberate on the developmental plans for attaining the targets by the end of the financial year. The meeting assumed significance on account of the proactive measures being under taken by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu to enhance the efficiency and the growth of Indian Railways.

The entire top machinery of Railway Board viz., Rajalakshmi Ravikumar, Finance Commissioner; Navin Tandon, Member Electrical; V.K. Gupta, Member Engineering; Hemant Kumar, Member Mechanical; Pradeep Kumar, Member Staff; Kundan Sinha, Member Traffic; Ganga Ram Agarwal, Secretary were present at the meeting.

P.K. Saxena, GM, South Central & South Western Railways; Rajiv Vishnoi, GM, East Coast Railway; Vashishta Johri, GM, Southern Railway and Satyender Kumar, GM, East Central Railway along with Divisional Railway Managers and other senior officials representing the Zones were present.

Addressing the meeting, A.K. Mital, Chairman Railway Board sought the best in terms of working efficiency from all the zones in various spheres of performance so as to ensure targeted growth in freight and passenger traffic besides giving due priority to customer satisfaction. With a fresh growth oriented direction coming from the Hon'ble Minister of Railways, the need is to evolve a dynamic approach and infuse fresh ideas into the working system, the Chairman Railway Board stressed.

The Chairman Railway Board sought every effort in improving the loading, mobility & interchange performance and timely release of rakes. The key to success in increasing the passenger traffic on Indian Railways is by means of effective ticket checking, he stressed. Mital also laid emphasis on 'Zero Accident Mission', for Indian Railways, as emphasized by Minister of Railways.

Speaking on capacity enhancement works in terms of Projects taken up for completion, the Chairman Railway Board made it clear that there shall be no time overruns and cost overruns for such works. Elaborating on the expectations of rail users, Mital held focus on the aspect of Punctuality and Cleanliness as the two foremost factors which are vital to passenger satisfaction. He wanted that extensive efforts be made on a continuous basis to ensure punctuality of train services.

With regard to Cleanliness, he made it evidently clear that cleanliness standards be maintained to the best levels in trains as well as at stations. The aim shall not just be towards general cleanliness but aimed at total cleanliness which includes a efficient system of garbage disposal too, he advised.

Later, the Full Board reviewed the performance of all the five Zones i.e. South Central Railway, South Western Railway, Southern Railway, East Coast Railway and South East Central Railway with the respective General Managers for the current fiscal 2015-16 up to July 2015.