The Railways has decided that the freights in goods trains should be increased to avoid hike in the fares for passengers. This decision was taken at the meeting of all the Chief Operating Managers (COMs) of the Railways, on the second day of their meeting here on Thursday.
It has been decided that the Railways has set a new target of 11,118 million tonnes in the goods trains. Earlier, the targets of delivered goods were 1,000 million tonnes which has been raised in the conference held to discuss different issues. On the last day of the two-day conference, an increase in the freight charges and freight carriage was discussed in detail and important decisions were taken which would reflect in the upcoming railway budget.
Presiding over the conference, Additional member (Traffic) AK Maitra said that increase in the freight charges would be done and the increase would be decided by the railway ministry. Suggestions which could help in improving the speed of trains of their respective zones should be sent by CMOs.
There are more than 12,000 vacant posts of passenger and goods train drivers which was discussed and the proposal would be sent to the railway ministry for filling them at the earliest. All the CMOs were of the opinion that the drivers are most vital part of the department and overburdening them with work for more than 12 hours is risking the lives of the passengers and trains and the vacant posts should be filled as soon as possible.
Senior Divisional Manager Brijendra Kumar and Divisional Railway Manager of Bhopal division Rajeev Choudhary were present at the conference.