Suresh Prabhu launches and dedicates various Services to the Nation

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Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu indianbureaucracy
Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu indianbureaucracy

Indian Railways news update: Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in a programme held at Rail Bhawan, launched and dedicated following services to the nation as a part of fulfilment of Budget Announcements 2016-17.

  1. Flagging off of inaugural run of first time-tabled container train service from   Domestic Container Terminal, Okhla (Delhi) and Whitefield (Bengaluru), by remote from Rail Bhawan.
  2. Launch of liberalized comprehensive parcel leasing policy.
  3. Launch of liberalized policy for parcel cargo express trains.
  4. Integrated (Facebook & Twitter) Social Media Platforms for grievance redressal.
  5. Announcement of implementation of policy allowing differently abled persons to avail concession while travelling without escort.

Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha was present to grace the occasion. Member Traffic Mohd. Jamshed, other Board Members and Senior Officials were also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu said that the Railways is diligently working for compliance of all the Budget Announcements and today’s services are also part of this year’s Railway Budget.  He said that the services launched today will certainly benefit the rail users. He said that Railways is not only launching services but their proper implementation is also being minutely monitored.  While launching integrated social media platform (Facebook & Twitter) for redressal of grievances he said that we would soon brought two Apps one for ticketing and other for grievances.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha said that these services are in compliance of budget announcements. He said that the every service which railways launches was a result of hard work of railwaymen. Railways is committed to ensure better journey experience to all passengers.

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE SERVICES LAUNCHED : – 

FLAGGING OFF INAUGURAL TIME TABLED CONTAINER TRAIN 

 As a significant step in the direction of compliance of budget announcements made by the Hon’ble Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in this year’s Railway Budget, the inaugural time tabled container train has been flagged off on 15th June, 2016. This train starts from the Domestic Container Terminal (Okhla) in Delhi and run to the ICD, Whitefield in Bangalore.

Following the budget announcement, discussions were held with Container Train Operators for submitting proposals for introduction of time tabled container trains with the objective of attracting incremental volumes of container traffic to rail mode. Accordingly, two pairs of time tabled container trains have been proposed by CONCOR to start with, for running in the domestic sector between Delhi and Bangalore and Delhi and Chennai.

 Regular weekly time tabled trains, one in each direction, will be run between these O-D pairs with transit times of 70 Hrs. Details are as under:

0030 (Dep) Thursday Okhla Mon/Tue 0000 (Arr)
2230 (Arr) Saturday Whitefield Saturday 0200 (Dep)
70 Hrs Time on Run 70 Hrs
2278 Kms Distance 2278 Kms
0100 (Dep) Saturday Okhla Tuesday 1700 (Arr)
2300 (Arr) Monday Tondiarpet Saturday 1900 (Dep)
70 Hrs Time on Run 70 Hrs
2160 Kms Distance 2160 Kms

A wide range of domestic piecemeal traffic is targeted for movement between these two O-D pairs, notable among which are steel tubes, food grains, ceramic tiles, polished granite slabs, rubber latex, plywood boards, alloys, electronic goods, chemicals, cars and automobile spares.

CONCOR estimates the volumes of containerized traffic in this sector to improve by 25 – 30% with the introduction of assured transit times which would be improving by 45% from present levels. Apart from price advantage and assured transit times of 70 Hrs in the above two O-D streams, rail transportation is going to be hugely advantageous being environment friendly. 

Launching of Integrated Social Media Platform (Facebook & Twitter) Platform for Redressal of Grievance

With the ever increasing use of Social Media and its impact in the day to day life of public, it has become a preferred medium for people to interact with large organizations world over. In this direction Indian Railways has been successfully handling more than 7000 tweets daily of various nature (complaints/suggestions/assistance). After its immense success (more than 10 lakhs followers on Twitter), Indian Railways will now be interacting with its fans and followers on Facebook through leveraging IT for prompt and speedy resolution of issues. The Integrated Social Media platform is made functional from today (15.06.2016) for the posts received on Twitter and Facebook.

In pursuance of Hon’ble MR’s Budget announcement, this platform is a step forward  in integration of various mediums of customer touch-points on Indian Railways. This strengthens our efforts of being a responsive and customer oriented organization.

Any passenger or rail user can now post his grievance/suggestion/assistance on our Facebook Page (“Ministry of Railways – India”). A system has been put in place to analyse the Facebook Post and the same will be forwarded internally to the concerned Divisional Railways Manager (DRM) by the staff working round the clock in the Social Media Cell at Railway Board. Prompt action taken  by the DRM on the grievance will be posted on the same page. This will be monitored at the Railway Board level in order to ensure that the grievances are redressed by the respective DRMs satisfactorily.

This will give an option to more than 9 lakh people who are following the Facebook page of Indian Railways to lodge their grievance/suggestion and ask for assistance through this popular social medium.

The Management Information System (MIS) Reports generated through this platform will be used for the system improvement of the Railways in due course.

I invite all Facebook users to interact with us on this platform and contribute to improve the services of Indian Railways. 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLICY ALLOWING DIFFERENTLY ABLE PERSONS TO AVAIL CONCESSION WHILE TRAVELLING ALONE 

Railways grant concession in passenger fare to more than 50 categories of passengers including the Divyangs.  They are physically and mentally challenged, patients, senior citizens, students, war widows, sports persons etc.,

The following four categories of Divyangs are eligible for concession in passenger fare:-

  1. Orthopaedically/paraplegic persons who cannot travel without an escort (At present concessional tickets issued only with escort)
  2. Mentally retarded persons who cannot travel without an escort (At present concessional tickets issued only with escort).
  3. Completely blind persons with or without an escort
  4. Deaf & Dumb persons both afflictions together in same persons with or without an escort.
CATEGORY CONCESSION
1 Orthopaedically Handicapped/ Paraplegic persons who cannot travel without escort – for any purpose ·         75% in Second, Sleeper First, AC chair Car  &AC 3 tier·         50% in  First Class and AC 2-tier,

·         25% in AC 3-tier & AC Chair Car of Rajdhani/Shatabdi trains

·         50% in Monthly Season Ticket & Quarterly Season Ticket

·         One escort is also eligible for same element of concession2Mentally retarded persons who cannot travel without escort – for any purpose3Blind persons travelling alone or with an escort – for any purpose4Deaf & Dumb persons (both afflictions together in the same person) travelling alone or with an escort – for any purpose.·         50% in Second, Sleeper and First  Class·         50% in Monthly Season Ticket &Quarterly Season Ticket

·         One escort is also eligible for same element of concession

At present concessional tickets are not issued to eligible orthopaedically handicapped/paraplegic persons/Mentally retarded persons not accompanied by an escort. Concessional tickets are issued only when tickets are booked along with an escort.

With a view to empower the divyang passengers (Orthopaedically handicapped /paraplegic persons/Mentally retarded) concessional tickets to eligible persons not accompanied by an escort will be issued for travel even without escort for those who would like to travel with friends, relatives or with the assistance of mechanical devices.  This will also help in increasing the self esteem of divyang.

LAUNCHING OF LIBERALIZED ‘COMPREHENSIVE PARCEL LEASING POLICY (CPLP) & LIBERALIZED POLICY ON ‘PARCEL CARGO EXPRESS TRAINS (PCET)

  1. Liberalized ‘Comprehensive Parcel Leasing Policy (CPLP)’ 

With a view to make the ‘Comprehensive Parcel Leasing Policy (CPLP)’ customer friendly, following changes are being made –

To bring stability and adequate time for business development, the duration of parcel leasing scheme is being increased from 3 years to 5 years;

 Insulation from budgetary hike –

  • Assured leased rates with fixed escalation @10% from 4th year
  • Realistic assessment of bids

Security deposit is being rationalized as under –

  • Fixed @10% of contract value for 1st year
  • Incentive to run the contract for the full period

Powers is being delegated  to zonal railways to fix the  reserve price –

  • For the 1st time zones are empowered to revise reserve price downwardly
  • A Paradigm shift, this will bring dynamic pricing in parcel business depending upon various OD flows

Powers is being delegated to zonal railways to enhance EMDs amount.  This will curb fake and fictitious bidders.

  1. Liberalized policy on ‘Parcel Cargo Express Trains (PCET)’

The following changes are being made in PCET policy –

Duration of contract is being increased from 3 years to 6 years to give stability and adequate time for development of business

 Insulation from budgetary hike

  • Assured leased rates with fixed escalation @10% from 4th year
  • Realistic assessment of bids

  Security deposit is being rationalized as under –

  • Fixed @10% of contract value for 1st year
  • Incentive to run the contract for the full period

 Powers is being delegated  to zonal railways to fix the  reserve price –  For the 1st time zones empowered to revise reserve price downwardly

Minimum composition of PCET reduced to 15 vans for first 6 months of the contract period to give  time to the leaseholder in the initial stage to develop business

Empowerment to Tender Committee

  • SOP to finalize PCET tenders delegated
  • DRMs  empowered upto Rs. 25 Crore

Loading/ unloading facility at more intermediate stations – 4 intermediate stations is being allowed for a distance of 2000 km.

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