The State Capital will have an office of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) from January 2018. Talking to the media persons in Ranchi on Friday, Railway Board Chairman Ashvini lohani announced that looking at the long awaited demands made by various organizations and people as well, Railway Board has decided to set up an office of IRCTC in Ranchi also.
“The IRTCT office will be functional from January 1, 2018 and an officer of the rank of Area Manager will be deputed here,” said lohani. It will be an achievement for the Ranchi Division, he added.
Answering a question over the possibilities of restarting Dhanbad Chandrapura Rail line, lohani said that a fresh report has been asked from the Directorate General of Mines Safety on the situation of fire in the area, following which decision will be taken on the issue.
“A meeting has been called with the top officials of Coal India limited on December 8 in New Delhi during which a thorough discussion will be done taking all aspects into consideration on,” said lohani. Rejecting the alleged dispute between the Coal India limited and Indian Railways over sharing of expenses for construction of diversion for the closed DC line, he said that the Railways will bear the total cost if required.
Though he admitted the fact that there was a problem of Maoists in the State, he assured that all the projects in the State will be completed on time for which a an officer of Railway Board will be deputed in Ranchi.
“Shivpur -Tori line will be started positively from April 30 next year and stoppage of Bhubneshwar Rajdhani at Muri Station will be ensured very soon,” said lohani. He however, refused to comment on the demand of creating a zonal office of Railways in Ranchi and said that as it was a policy level matter, it would not be appropriate to say anything in this regard.
Earlier in Dhanbad on Thursday, lohani had said that that safety of passengers was the priority of Indian Railways and negligence in rail security will not be tolerated at any cost.
“To ensure safety of train, initiatives are being taken to fill up the vacant posts related to it for which directions have been issued to the Railway Board,” said lohani.
He was on a visit of Jharkhand on Thursday and returned to Delhi early in the morning on Friday.