The South East Central Railway (SECR) would be going for installation and commissioning of an integrated security system at Bilaspur, Raipur and Gondia railway stations.
The project comprises installation of IP-based video surveillance system and networkable x-ray baggage scanner system, officials stated.
It may be recalled that SECR, which handles over 1.16 crore passengers on a monthly basis is also going to offer Wi-fi facility in a total of 23 railway stations by the end of this year.
Railway stations to be facilitated with Wi-fi facility are Bilaspur, Raipur, Raigarh, Champa, Bhilai Power House, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Gondia, Bhandara Road,
Korba, Akaltara, Pendra Road, Anuppur, Shahdol, Umaria, Ambikapur, Bhatapara, Tilda, Dongargarh, Chhindwara, Ramtek, Chandafort and Itwari.
The objective of equipping these railway stations with Wi-fi facility is to provide more amenities to passengers, stated Agrawal.
Since the works to equip Railway stations will be carried out by RailTel Corporation of India limited under Ministry of Railways, prediction of time regarding installing of Wi-fi at these 23 railway stations is not possible, he said , adding that two ‘A1’ Railway stations-Bilaspur and Raipur, will be equipped with Wi-fi facility by the end of this year and in another phase work in Railway stations of ‘A’ and ‘B’ category will be taken up.
Notably, while presenting Railway budget for financial year 2015-16, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had announced that 400 Railway stations in the country will be facilitated with Wi-fi facility.
Several Railway stations in the country have already been equipped with Wi-fi facility which including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Secunderabad.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has allocated `1,490 crores to South East Central Railway (SECR) in the Railway Budget 2015-16.
The fund would be utilized for implementation of SECR’s several key projects including laying of new railway tracks doubling, gauge conversion, passenger amenity, safety and security, maintenance of staff quarters and other modes.
The Union Railway Minister has outlined four goals including delivering a sustained improvement in customer experience, making Railways a safer means of travel, modernizing infrastructure of Railways, expand capacity and make Railways financially self-sustainable for improvement in the Indian Railways over the next five years, officials stated.
He said that ahead of bio-toilets project, Railways will now introduce vacuum toilets to prevent water wastage besides a 24x7 helpline No-138 on real-time basis for attending passenger problems and security related complaints.
With a view to dealing with fire emergencies at crowded railway stations and those with maximum rush of trains, the Railways will also soon be installing modern fire-fighting equipment at around 10 railway stations under the jurisdiction of Raipur division. Railway stations to be equipped with modern devices for dealing with fire incidents are — Raipur, Durg, Railway Store Depot (RSD), Dadhapara Railway Station besides others.
Notably, the financial year 2014-15 was happening for Raipur Railway division of the South East Central Railway (SECR). The PP Yard of Raipur division maintained 7301 wagon and 206 racks and boxes during the year 2014-15 which is highest across all Railway divisions in India.
Officials further informed that in fiscal 2014-15, Raipur Railway division loaded 31.85 million tones of freight which is highest since the formation of Raipur division. During the past five years, Railway division has earned Rs 11.78 crore from non conventional sources, officials said.
New lED lights were installed in Raipur Railway station and a 10 KW Solar Power Plant was also established.