The East Coast Railway (ECoR) carried 83.37 MT freight from April to September of the current financial year against 77.82 MT during the period in 2014-15 fiscal thereby registering a growth of 7.13 per cent.
Similarly, it carried 47.49 million passengers by registering a growth of 5 per cent over the same period.
As stated by ECoR General Manager Rajiv Vishnoi, the railway also plans to install Wi-Fi facilities at 28 stations in the current financial year. For Bhubaneswar, work is likely to be completed by January next. Besides, the target set for Rajsunakhala to Bolgarh route is June, 2016 and Bolgarh to Nayagarh is March, 2017.
Work from Balangir side will start this year from Balangir up to Bhainsapalli (19 km).
The Haridaspur-Paradeep New Rail link (82.02km) at Rs 1,186 crore will be completed by December 2016, while work for the Angul - Sukinda New Rail link(98.7 km) at Rs 1202.70 crore will be over by June 2018.
Doubling of lines of 54.42 km out of total target of 102.35 km has been completed in the current fiscal, including Sakhigopal- Puri (16.3 km) in July, Begunia-Raj Sunakhala (9.5 km) in October, Brundamal- lapanga (8.8 km) in May, Jharsuguda Road-Jharsuguda (2.07 km) in October, Almanda - Korrukunda (7.1 km) in July and Korukonda - Vizianagaram(10.65 km) in October.
Electrification work got commissioned in Angul-Kerjung (13.5 km) in September. Two new platforms along with two stable lines and an island platform at Puri got commissioned in July.
Two new platforms each at Bhubaneswar and Khurda Road were also commissioned in July this year. One additional platform and 2nd entry with circulating area at Bramhapur was commissioned in July. A tourist complex of 3,000 sq meters with modern facilities to hold 5,000 pilgrims was commissioned at Puri. New Maltipatpur station building was commissioned in July.
The ECoR targets to commission a water recycling plant at Bhubaneswar Coaching Depot in November. The objective is to save water by re -using water. The plant is designed to treat 5, 00,000 liters per day and the water will be used for coach cleaning and washing purpose. Among other achievements this fiscal, the ECoR has provided E-catering in 70 trains. 24X7 helpline number 138 (for queries/complaints related to medical emergency, cleanliness, food and catering, coach maintenance etc.), toll-free number 182 for passenger security related complaints are in operation.
A total 57 automatic ticket vending machine with smart card and currency options (ATVMs) have been installed and are functional. Another 37 ATVMs have been supplied to the division and are presently under installation. As many as 104 locations over 24 stations have been handed over to IRCTC to provide Water Vending Machines.