Northern Railway’s 27 per cent incremental growth of freight traffic during first quarter of current financial year.
General Manager, Northern Railway, Vijay Kumar Gupta, reviewed the quarterly performance (April-June 2013) of Northern Railway on July 15. In the meeting held in Northern Railway Head quarter, Baroda House, quarterly performance of Northern Railway was reviewed with Principal Heads of Departments and all Divisional Railway Managers. Northern Railway has achieved many milestones during the first quarter of the current financial year.
It has been able to clear the entire programme of food grains movement given by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for loading of Food grains from Northern Railway to various destinations in the country.
Many mega projects have been completed during the first quarter including new line between Chandigarh and ludhiana and the important extension of Railway line between Qazigund and Banihal in Jammu & Kashmir. Qazigund—Banihal extension involving 11.2 kms long railway tunnel, was dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister on June 26. The extension of train services from Qazigund — Banihal connecting Jammu with Kashmir Valley have become most popular in valley among the local public and also provides quicker and economical mode of transport from Banihal to Valley which is much longer and expensive by Roadways.
General Manager reviewed the performance in all spheres of Northern Railway working with Principal Heads of Departments and all Divisional Railway Managers of Northern Railway through Video Conferencing. New targets were outlined and strategies worked out to sustain the outstanding performance and also to complete many targeted works during the remaining months of the current financial year including planning and introducing all the 42 new trains announced in the Budget 2013–14. Planning for major infrastructure related works of terminals, line capacity augmentation, railway electrifications and new lines were reviewed.
Various arrangements made by the divisions during the summer rush between April–June this year including running of special trains, providing additional passenger amenities and checks and drives in reservation, booking offices and catering in trains were widely appreciated by the passengers. Northern Railway also planned evacuation of stranded passengers from Uttrakhand by running of 10 special trains from Haridwar to various destinations in the country and by making all necessary arrangements at Haridwar, Rishikesh, Dehradun and New Delhi railway stations. These efforts have also been widely appreciated by the public and media.