Sh. Rajiv Chaudhry, General Manager Northern & North Central Railways held a performance review meeting with the departmental heads of Northern Railway through video conferencing from Baroda House, NR headquarter office in New Delhi. He discussed the on-going initiatives of the various departments in maintaining and enhancing the infrastructure and assets of the zone, post-lockdown. As normalcy is returning Northern Railway is putting in all efforts to revamp the rail routes, increase speed in sections, increase electrification and improve signaling systems. Infrastructure enhancement works in the form of new rail lines is again picking up speed.
Work on the hill railways, the USBRL project and Rishikesh-Karnprayag Chardham Project in Uttrakhand is back on track. Tunneling work on the 12.75 Km T-40 tunnel in Ramban district of Jammu & Kashmir has resumed. While the sites of the iconic Chenab and Anji Bridges are abuzz with activity again. The newly constructed section Virabhadra-Rishikesh section has been commissioned and a new railway station Yognagari has been constructed with world class facilities at Rishikesh. Work on several tunnels and Bridges on the route has also started.
An average 96 special trains going to different destinations across the country are running on a daily basis from Delhi area alone. The focus is on increasing the punctuality of the trains. The punctuality status of Northern Railway stands at 97 % at present. This is up from 92% in May-June 20. There is an impetus on increasing sectional speed of trains, in this regard the overused rail lines are being revamped, electrification and advanced signaling works are being undertaken. Speed trials are being conducted on many important routes with full load to access efficacy. Speed in many sections is envisaged to be increased to 100 kmph and beyond from existing 60 to 80 kmph.
To encourage use of railways for movement of Goods, Freight Business development Units have been opened in all the five divisions of NR. These units will reach out to the freight customers to provide an easy and hassle-free platform for doing business. More and more Loading / unloading points are being provided as per the demand of the customers. Now even small containers can be transported through Railways.
