Maligaon, Jan 28:Northeast Frontier Railway celebrated the 70th Republic Day of our Nation in befitting manner. The central programme was held at the Maligaon Railway stadium, where Shri Sanjive Roy, General Manager of N.F. Railway unfurled the National Flag in presence of a huge gathering of railway officials and their family members.
The General Manager also inspected an impressive March-past by RPF contingents, Territorial Army contingents, Civil Defence, school children and Bharat Scouts & Guides.
An impressive cultural programme depicting the unity in diversity of our nation organised during the occasion was also enjoyed by everyone present. The Republic Day was also celebrated in all the five Divisions of N.F. Railway viz. Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar and Katihar, where the Divisional Railway Manager unfurled the National Flag in presence of Divisional railway officials and their family members.
In his speech General Manager emphasised about the need to march forward towards a new horizon to achieve the goal set by our Prime Minister, as Indian Railway is not just a transporter of man and materials it is the life line of nation.
General Manager informed that, a history was made when all un-manned level crossing gates of NFR were eliminated recently. This involved record number of 136 unmanned gates being transformed into manned gates, construction of 10 ROBs and closure of 5 unmanned LC gates.
It can be mentioned here that, this year NFR had been successful in improving passenger earnings to position as best among all zones of Indian Railways in terms of Originating Passenger Earnings, Passenger Growth and Ticket-Checking Revenue.
The Originating Earnings of NFR has been Rs.1, 242 crores which is 11% more than last year against the all-India growth of 5.42%. Number of passengers carried by NFR zone has also increased by 7.17% when the all-India increase has been only 1.78%. The earnings from ticket-checking drives have also recorded a 33.29% growth compared to last year and 3.23% over target.
To ensure greater proliferation of service in the NE region, six new regular express trains were also introduced during this financial year and NFR also ran 412 trips of 25 special trains.
Frequency of Agartala – Bangalore Humsafar Express has been increased from weekly to bi-weekly while carrying capacity of 6 pair of trains has been augmented by attaching 26 additional coaches creating 2024 additional seats. At the same time, 776 coaches were attached with different trains temporarily creating 64603 additional berths.
The 25 special trains had helped more than 7.5 lakh people to travel. 25 passenger carrying trains were speeded up by an average of 23 minutes and also reduced the stoppage time of 122 trains at various stations to improve punctuality. Also, six pairs of conventional rakes were converted to DEMU rakes to save on engine reversal time.
In a first of its kind initiative, the Agartala – Anand Vihar Rajdhani Express has been provided with free on-board Wi-Fi entertainment in Novemeber last year. Passengers can now enjoy 500 GB of pre-loaded content through their Wi-Fi enabled devices.
Free Wi-Fi is also provided at 45 stations of this railway. For greater transparency, CCTV cameras have been installed in 11 kitchens, while live streaming of Katihar Base Kitchen has been made available online through IRCTC website.
Now a customer can see for himself the activities going on in the kitchen. To maintain cleanliness at stations and trains 371 stations of N. F. Railway have been provided with mechanized cleaning equipment since 2nd October 2018 as a fitting tribute to Father of the Nation on his 150th Birth Anniversary.
To promote a totally paperless and digital environment in trains, Hand-held Terminals (HHTs) in lieu of reservation charts are being provided. Towards this end we have provided HHTs in all our Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. All other trains will be covered by the end of this year.
Working towards the objective of a green and energy-efficient railway, all 419 stations and 859 service buildings of NFR have been converted into 100% LED lightings thereby saving a lot of electrical energy and money.
General Manager lauded the performance of Smt Mirabai Chanu, Miss Farhena Parbin, Miss Manorama Devi, Miss Bhagyabati Kachari, and Shri A Boby Singh of N.F. Railway who had won medals in various Championship of International and National levels. General Manager also awarded 25 person for outstanding achievements to ensure safe running of trains.
Later the General Manager along with members of N.F. Railway Women’s Welfare Organization (NFRWWO) distributed fruits and other items of medical importance amongst the admitted patients of the N.F. Railway Central Hospital, Maligaon.
