General Manager of East Central Railway Lalit Chandra Trivedi today said that the Indian Railways is committed to provide its passengers world class facilities and is aiming at a high goal even during the Covid-19 pandemic. The GM was addressing a virual press conference on Thursday.

He said that in the Covid period also, the Indian Railways has set very high targets which include doubling the freight loading by 2024, getting passengers off the waiting list, etc. He said that during the tenure of previous governments Indian Railways used to invest about Rs 40-50 thousand crores per annum, which has increased to about 1.5 lakh crores during the time of the present government.

Trivedi said that the goal is so high that even this amount is falling short.

“Therefore, in view of more investment, Indian Railways is inviting the private sector to run passenger trains and goods trains. This will not only be a capital investment, but passengers will also get the benefit of world-class rail service.

With the entry of the private sector in Indian Railways, more employment opportunities will be generated, because when more trains run, more goods will be loaded then there will be more employment opportunities,” he added.

“Indian Railways is not only inviting the private sector for the development of its basic infrastructure but is also working in collaboration with several state governments and other institutions by forming joint ventures.” said the ECR GM.

Answering a query he said that there will be no such thing as an increase in rail fare with the arrival of the private sector. In response to another question, Trivedi said that the operation of more passenger trains depends on the permission of the State government; the Indian Railways is ready to run as many passenger trains.

The GM also talked about the steps taken by East Central Railway in view of Covid-19, passenger facilities, infrastructure development, future action plans. In order to achieve the goal of doubling the freight by 2024, Business Development Unit, Poor Welfare Employment Campaign launched with the objective of providing employment opportunities to migrant workers and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Covid-19 Provision of Covid Care Coach for the treatment of patients, use of 100 per cent e-office in East Central Railway, special work was done on various works completed in the lockdown period.

The press conference was also attended by Additional General Manager of East Central Railway Ashok Kumar, heads of all the departments of Headquarters, DRMs of Danapur, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Dhanbad, Sonpur and Samastipur divisions. Chief Public Relations Officer Rajesh Kumar conducted the press conference and delivered the vote of thanks to the press representatives.