The 77th Independence Day was celebrated with great enthusiasm and at North Central Railway (NCR) headquarters office here.The program started with flag hoisting by General Manager Satish Kumar. He inspected the parade of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Bharat Scout and Guides and St John Ambulance Brigade. The GM also awarded 22 railway personnel for outstanding performance. The awardees included Shailendra Kumar Pal-Senior Section Engineer (SSE), Engg./Bridge Line Agra, Amit Kumar-Sr. Engg./IT, Ashish Kumar - Reservation Supervisor, Information Technology Cell, Satpal Singh – Office Superintendent/ Personnel, Vidyabhushan Shah - Senior Section Officer/ Mechanical, Gagan Upadhyay - Junior Engineer /Signal & Telecom, Harish Kumar Baghel - Senior Technician/Mechanical, Umesh Chandra -Track Maintainer/Engineering, Mahesh Chandra - Pointsman, Dheeraj - Sub-Inspector/RPF, Prem Chandra Agarwal - SSE/Electrical General, Nitesh Asthana - Junior Engineer/Electrical, Raju Lal Meena - Track Maintainer, Rakesh Saroj- SSE /Engineering, Manoj Kumar Yadav- Head Constable /RPF, Vikram Singh - Head Constable/RPF, Karamveer Singh Chahar - Traffic Inspector, Raj Kumar – Ch. Office Superintendent/Stores, Ashok Kumar Meena - SSE/ Signal & Telecom, Kedar Prabhakar Bhujang - SSE/ Mechanical, Ashutosh Meena - Junior Engineer/ CMLR Jhansi, Narendra Kumar Jain - SSE/ Workshop Jhansi.
GM Satish Kumar and president, North Central Railway Women’s Welfare Organisation, Ruby Rani Singh released tricolour balloons in the air. The GM flagged off 14 vehicles provided for 14 RPF posts in Prayagraj division. The dog squad of RPF demonstrated its efficiency by performing various demonstrations.
Cultural performances were presented by the members of NCR’s cultural team. The GM gave extended greetings to all employees, officers of NCR and their families on Independence Day.
The GM said “our undeterred efforts towards excellence in NCR are yielding results as we clocked a very impressive growth of around 13 per cent (pc) in gross originating earning up to June in current financial year. We have also registered a growth of 17.85 pc in passenger earnings by carrying 35.51 pc more passengers in comparison to first quarter of last year. Our sundry earning has also pegged up by 147.8 pc in comparison to last year”.
NCR is on the path to revamp its stations and developing them as the face of the city they serve, as city centres and as the hub of commercial activities. We are also redeveloping 52 stations of NCR at the cost of almost Rs 3300 crore, he said. These include 15 Amrit Bharat stations of each division and station redevelopment is being undertaken at Prayagraj, Kanpur, Virangana Laxmibai Jhansi, Gwalior, Khajuraho and Mathura etc. Out of these the foundation stone has already been laid for 13 stations by PM and works have commenced recently.
To provide safe and convenient travelling environment to passengers, four new FOBs at Kanspur Gugauli, Jaswantnagar, Kurasti Kalan and Antri stations have been constructed this year. The height of platforms has been raised at Band Baretha and Ajhai stations along with extension of platform at Ajhai Station.
In our efforts towards strengthening safety, we have eliminated level crossing gate and in addition three level crossing gates have been interlocked this year, he said. With a view to enhance safety, our assets are being upgraded, updated and overhauled.
The safety department is working relentlessly to imbibe safe working practices among staff. Safety wings have conducted seven safety drives during current financial year. It has also felicitated 22 staff for showing exemplary alertness towards safety during working uptill July during 2023-24. Besides 22 employees who had contributed in protection of lives, innovation and improvement in working besides safety and security etc were given award on Independence Day. To enhance fire safety, 17 stations/locations have been provisioned with fire alarm system. Besides, 475 coaches and 50 power cars of NCR have been fitted with fire smoke detection and suppression system and remaining coaches will be equipped with this system by end of current year.
Security of passenger is also of prime importance and security personnel are always alert towards passenger security and safety of Railway property. The RPF team rescued 219 kids under Operation ‘Nanhe Farishte’ and under Operation ‘Narcos’ caught 57 drug pedlars and recovered banned substances worth Rs 98.50 lakh. They have also rescued lives of eight passengers under Operation Jeevan Raksha and nabbed 83 unauthorized ticket agents under operation ‘Uplabdh’ to curb blackmarketing of tickets.
A senior Citizen Waiting Room facility has been provided in Central Hospital, Prayagraj. The Health department has also conducted special health check-up camps.
The NCR work study cell is also conducting MDP programmes for supervisors and during its recently conducted 125th programme it has trained 30 participants.