Fulfilling yet another commitments of the Railway Budget 2015-16, the Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated three passenger amenity projects namely, NGeT (Next Generation e-Ticketing) Hindi Website, Paperless Unreserved Ticketing through Mobile Phones for Mumbai suburban (Western Railway Network) and Destination Alert Service in Rajdhani and Duronto through SMS . The persons present on the occasion included Chairman Railway Board Shri A. K. Mital and other Railway Board members. He also said recently we have taken some other passenger friendly initiatives like launch of SUVIDHA class of trains which are dynamic fare based premium trains and automatic fare refund system in case of cancellation of a train. We have also taken steps to improve Railway freight income by way of adoption of new freight incentive schemes.
We also observed Rail Yatri Pakhwada recently, which was one of the biggest public outreach events in the history of India and helped develop connection with around seven million people across the country. The Senior Railway Functionaries interacted with the public during this fortnight and worked for resolving their problems. Many new projects were commissioned during this period and the entire Railway machinery was galvanised. These steps are probably something unprecedented. We must work for the development of the organisation. The Minister thanked media persons who carried along with them the total concept of Rail Yatri Pakhwada and made the people’s participation a reality which is very important. The Minister said that People and we must work together to make it all success.
The Minister said that railways have always been conscious about passenger amenity and as a fallow up, design of coaches has been improved with cost economy. Punctuality, comfort of Railway passengers have always been our priority. Railway Budget announcements are being translated into reality. Referring to the paperless ticket concept, the Railway Minister said that this has successfully worked in Chennai Subrban Railway Network and now it has been launched in Mumbai Subarban Railway Network. Similarly, destination alert in Rajdhani and Duranto trains which has been launched today are very useful services for the passengers. The Railway Minister pointed out that all these IT initiatives are in line with the digital India concept of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narender Modi.
Referring to the most ambitious Railway project of Dedicated Freight Corridor, the Railway Minister pointed out that the Cabinet has recently approved the revised cost estimate for this project of Rs.81459 crore. The Minister also pointed out that Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India has awarded contracts worth more than Rs.15,000 crores in recent months which is a remarkable progress and which is much more than the total works awarded by the same organisation in the last six years.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K.Mital, said that within 132 days, 64 budget commitments have been met. Paper less ticketing for 130 km Western Railway distance covering 35 stations, SMS alert service in Rajdhani and Duronto, e-Ticketing in Hindi are remarkable steps taken by Indian Railways and these amenities can be extended to other sections of the Railways in future. Today Hindi Portal of e-ticketing has been inaugurated and we can switch over to other languages very soon. There are 37 lakh daily passengers on western Railways and we will try to cover our MST holders also under the paperless concept.
Additional Member (C&IS), Railway Board Shri Mohammad Jamshed gave the welcome address. Ms. Vandana Nanda, MD, CRIS, the IT arm of Indian Railways was specially present on the occasion.
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