Railway Ministry has conferred with the prestigious railway employees award - ‘Ati Vishisht Rail Seva Puraskar’ (AVRSP) – to 100 Railway Employees from various zones/divisions, production units & railway PSUs all over the country for their outstanding services. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw presented 21 Shields for promoting best practices among Railway employees.
The awards/shields were presented at the 68th Railway Week Central Function, organised at Bharat Mandapam in the national Capital on Friday evening. Addressing the gathering after conferring the awards, Vaishnaw congratulated the awardees for their exceptional work and effort. He said the transformation work is going on at full pace in Railways under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“More electrification has been done in 9.5 years than in the past 40 years. The big picture behind this is when in 2015 PM merged the railways budget with general budget, interest/ capital charge had to be paid on the rail grant and it removed all financial hindrances for the railways.
Lack of Investment, which was the biggest problem for railways, is now a thing of the past,” Vaishnaw said.
The Union Minister asserted that “People’s expectations with the railways is being fulfilled now. Elaborating on the economic growth of the nation, the Union Minister said that in 2014, India was on 10th spot in global economies while in 2004, India was already in the 10th spot and therefore, it was a lost decade.
“We should all change the colonial mindset and by 2027 we will become one of the top three. Railways will play a vital role in India’s growth journey. We are saving huge amounts in logistics costs alone. We are all lucky that we have a PM who is so emotionally attached with railways. PM has often shared so many experiences with me, that it can only come from someone who has indepth knowledge about the functioning of the Railways,” the railway minister said.
In her welcome remarks, the Chairperson, Railway Board, Jaya Varma Sinha said that Indian Railways has achieved remarkable feats in the past few years, such as 34 new Vande Bharat trains for transporting passengers, 1309 stations redevelopment under Amrit Bharat which will improve overall experience and save time for passengers.
Talking about rail safety, the CRB said advance technology is being used by railways to improve overall safety including kavach which is being implemented with speed and scale.
