GM urges staff to make ECoR best freight loading zone

Odisha Sun Times Business Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 15:

The General Manager of East Coast Railway (ECoR) Rajiv Vishnoi on Thursday urged employees to make ECoR the best railway zone in the country in terms of freight loading.

In his address on the eve of Independence Day at the ECoR head office here yesterday, he said going by the statistics of loadings, revenue and operating ratio, the target would not be difficult to achieve.

He also reminded the employees that passenger comfort and safety of everybody concerned must not be ignored.

Highlighting the steps taken by the ECoR for passenger comfort, Vishnoi spoke about additional stoppages provided to two trains, running of 366 special trains and augmentation of 1,310 coaches, provision of PRS at two locations, STBS at 18 locations, ATVMs at six locations, UTS at one location, coach indication boards at two stations, FOBs at three stations, PF shelters at four stations, touch screen terminals at four locations and escalators at the Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam railway stations.

Regarding safety enhancement carried out by the ECoR, he said auto signalling of 7.6 route km in Retang-Khurda Road section, panel interlocking at Tikiri and Junagarh Road stations, intermediate block signalling between Joranda Road-Dhenkanal, Kendrapara Road-Nirgundi and Badabandha-Paradeep sections, replacement of 36 gates with limited height subways and manning of two level-crossing gates have been completed.

Apart from this, more than 14,000 offenders and 42,285 ticketless travellers have been nabbed, he said, adding that RPF personnel have been deployed in major express and passenger trains to provide security to the passengers.

Referring to project works, the ECoR GM said a new line between Bhawanipatna and Junagarh (24.4 km) and doubling between Rengali and Lapanga (10.40 km) have been completed while the Khurda-Begunia (32 km) section of the Khurda-Balangir new line work is almost complete and would be commissioned shortly.

Besides, two major bridges and 59 minor bridges were constructed during the year, he added.