For the first time after taking over as the General Manager of Northern Railway, Ashutosh Gangal conducted a review meeting with the departmental heads and DRMs of Northern Railway through video conferencing. Deliberations were held on keeping focus on safety, punctuality during Chatth and Diwali festival rush.
Gangal, expressing his keen concern about minimising accidents on tracks as well as within yards, stressed upon better coordination between adjoining divisions of other zonal railways.
He also reviewed the arrangements for Diwali at Delhi stations. He instructed that additional arrangements may be placed for better crowd-control, keeping in mind COVID-19 protocols for safety and social distancing. He said, if required, special, additional and reserved trains will ply, additional counters at stations will be setup to facilitate the passengers.
He further emphasised on the railway working, which should be “transparent.” He stressed upon maximum use of technology so that human intervention can be minimised and transparency in all sphere of railway working may be established. He told the efforts should be enhanced to minimise the human failure in train operations.
He added that the monitoring system of progress of construction projects should also be a prime area of focus as the development/improvement of railways are very much dependent on these projects. He told the department heads to expedite and complete the work in stipulated time manner in particular construction projects. He also reviewed the work done over the zone in improving the maintenance standard of track, welds and the removal of scrap lying near the tracks. He instructed the divisions on conducting drives to enhance the safety and counsel the staff whenever necessary.
In another meeting, Gangal reviewed the performance of Business Development Units setup at Zonal and Divisional levels this year with the departmental heads of Northern Railway through video conferencing. The meeting aimed at enhancing the share of freight business of railways, customer mapping and engagement.
He informed that the efforts of BDUs has started giving yields as Northern Railway has successfully reached new areas of freight business like loading of sugar to Nepal, operation of Vayapar Mala trains, TEEVRA services, SMS alerts to consignees, etc. As of now, 52 meetings of BDUs have been organised at various levels with different stakeholders.
He said that through constant help from BDUs, there is a 26 per cent increase in loading and 30 per cent increase in earnings in October 2020, which is quite significant given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The food grain loading is about 50 per cent.
Talking about the freight business developments, he took stock of the outreach of the Business Development Units. He also instructed that BDUs should create an environment of trust, support and confidence amongst the customers. He informed that loading of food grains and other items have steadily increased with every passing month.