Special initatives for disabled at Railway stations : DRM

South Central Railway Vijayawada Divisional Manager Ashok Kumar said that the SCR had recorded originating gross earning of Rs 8773 crore till December in this financial year with passenger traffic of 284 millions and freight of 71.5 million Tonnes. He said the passenger traffic had increased by 2.5 per cent compared to the previous year. The DRM Ashok Kumar delivered the message at the Rail stadium here on Thursday to mark the 68th Republic Day celebrations.

Several hundred railway employees, officials, students and artistes participated in the annual celebrations. Speaking on the occasion, the DRM stressed upon the need for increasing the loading and tapping of various Non-fare sources for generating additional revenues, both on short term and long term basis.

Highlighting the achievements of SC Railways, the DRM said Route Relay Interlocking system was commissioned at Vijayawada Railway station at a cost of Rs 40 crore during September 2016 for efficient handling the movement of trains at one of the biggest Railway junctions in India. Referring to train passengers, he said nine pairs of new trains including Tirupati-Vizag AC Double Decker express train was introduced in SC Railway during this financial year.

He said 1220 special train services were operated attaching 12,000 extra coaches during the Dasara festival season to cater to the needs of passengers rush. The DRM has recalled 691 special trains were operated with 4871 extra coaches during the Krishna Pushkaralu in August 2016 carrying 42.6 lakh passengers. He recalled devotees from all over India attended the Krishna Pushkaralu in Vijayawada.

Giving details of the passenger amenities and development works, he said the SC Railway spent Rs 52 crore for passenger amenities this financial year. He informed that special initiative was taken to provide facilities in all 74 railway stations for the specially abled persons at all the 74 stations of A1, A and B categories. He said the employees are the core strength of the Railways and it is their motivation and commitment which yields the results, the DRM observed.

He added that the SC Railway registered a very significant achievement in the areas of energy conservation bagging nine National Energy Conservation awards for the year 2016 in various categories from Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, Central Government etc. The DRM was accorded guard of honour to mark the occasion.

Cultural programmes performed by children enthralled the Railway officials and audience. Kids joyfully took part in the fancy dress competitions wearing the fancy dresses resembling freedom fighters Subhash Chandra Bose, Alluri Seetarama Raju and others like Mother Theresa, Swamy Vivekananda etc.