Western Railway, having the distinction of being pioneer in so many FIRSTS over Indian Railways has once again proved its excellence to set new records by achieving best ever performances in various fields during the concluded financial year 2019-20.
Despite the tough challenges amidst the 21-day Coronavirus lockdown, Western Railway continues to break all barriers in achieving impressive performance in many fields including electrification, safety, infrastructural development and Signal & telecommunications. Shri Alok Kansal- General Manager of Western Rly has congratulated all concerned Principal Heads of Departments & their teams for their awesome achievements during the financial year 2019-20 despite several challenging situations.
According to a press release issued by Shri Ravinder Bhakar – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, in its journey right from its formation on 5th November, 1951, Western Railway has achieved so many milestones. This year too has been an marvelous one & full of awesome achievements for Western Rly under the dynamic leadership & suitable guidance of Shri Alok Kansal – General Manager of Western Railway.
Shri Bhakar stated that the financial year 2019-20 has been a very successful year for W.Rly on various fronts. During this year, WR not only surpassed commercial earning targets by setting new records and breaking previous records, but also has been successful in achieving the first position in Electrification over Indian Railway and has shown an impressive performance in various infrastructural developments, safety and signal & telecommunication fields.
Evolving for a brighter future
There has been an accelerated development in the recent past. This is evident from the fact that in the year 2019-20, electrification work of 664 RKM has been commissioned by Western Rly, which is the highest over Indian Railways.
The CRS inspection of Mathela-Nimarkhedi (55 Rkm) and Dhola-Damnagar (35 Rkm) sections scheduled on 25.03.20 & 26.03.20 could not be done due to nationwide lockdown to prevent spread of COVID-19 virus. These sections shall now be offered for CRS inspection in April 2020.
CRS sanction has been obtained for increase of sectional speed on Mumbai-Central-Nagda section on Mumbai-New Delhi route and Vadodara-Ahmedabad section to 130 KMPH. Earlier few trains with special sanction were running at 130 kmph, now many more trains can be run at 130 kmph thereby saving lot of travelling time.
The Commissioning of Mahesana-Vadnagar section 25 kVac OHE, of which sanction for electrification was received in May’19, work completed & CRS inspection done in Jan.’20 i.e in just 7 months! Another great feat for Western Railway was the Commissioning of the longest section i.e 150 Rkm at a stretch on 19.02.20 i.e Surendernagar-Botad-Dhola (119 Rkm) & Surendernagar-Dhargandhara (31 Rkm) section. The Railway has certainly added several feathers to its hat!
Hard work reflects in awards
Western Railway is pursuing various energy conservation measures to promote clean & green energy. As a result of these efforts, WR received First prize in Transport category during National Energy Conservation Awards 2019 instituted by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power.
Apart from it, 2 awards were received in Institute category viz. Second Prize for DRM office Rajkot and Third Prize/Merit Certificate for DRM office Bhavnagar. These awards were presented by Sh. R.K.Singh, Hon’ble Minister of Power & Renewable Energy in a glittering function at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on the occasion of Energy Conservation Day.
WR took keen initiative to replace conventional inefficient light fittings at all the 726 electrified stations and provided energy-efficient LED lights. In addition, all 2479 Service buildings and 40714 residential quarters have been provided with LED lights. It resulted in improved level of illumination and also, in recurring saving of about Rs. 12 crores per annum.
Maintenance facilities for Electric Locomotives in Diesel sheds
Moving with pace and transforming as per need of the future, a new chapter was added to the history of Diesel Loco Shed, Vatva and Ratlam, as these diesel sheds started maintenance of electric locomotives with effect from Aug.’19. In first phase, 10 electric locomotives (WAG5H type) were nominated for maintenance at these sheds.
During 2019-20, Electric Loco Shed, Vadodara commissioned a record 60 new electric locos. With the commissioning of 200th Passenger Locomotive, Electric Loco Shed at Vadodara has now become second-highest passenger loco homing shed among all the electric loco shed of Indian Railways.
Trains taken over on HOG
Western Railway is at present operating 67 regular train pairs on HOG system, highest on IR. As a result of switching over to HOG system, Western Railway has achieved net saving of Rs. 47.23 Crores during current financial year 2019-20 i.e 128.82 % higher than saving accrued on this account during last financial year.
Sturding our Bridges and other PassengerAmenities
Re-girdering/Rebuilding of distressed bridges has been carried out and several new Road Under Bridge (RUB) and Road Over Bridge (ROB) have been constructed for the safety of passengers. Western Railway eliminated 179 level crossings out of which 86 were manned level crossings. It also built 136 RUBs and 28 ROBs during 2019-20 which is the highest in the last five years. Western Railway also installed 18 lifts and 14 escalators over various stations during 2019-20. The Signal & Telecommunication dept. provided free WiFi at 361 stations and Public Announcement systems at 27 stations, across Western Railway.
Western Railway is committed to infrastructural development for the overall growth and economic prosperity of the country. 104.34 kms of Gauge Conversion work has been completed, on the other hand, 20.23 kms of Doubling work has also been completed. Sabarmati – Kalol section which is part of Ahmedabad – Mahesana Gauge Conversion project and Doubling of Jasali – Diyodar section has been completed and certified fit for passenger traffic.
13 FOBs were constructed in the financial year 2019-20, out of which 7 were built for Mumbai Suburban stations itself. The Railway also successfully dismantled 8 FOB which possessed danger or were too old. Besides this, the work of cricket academy with 3 latest bowling machines commissioned at Mahalaxmi.
Safety First Always
Under the able guidance of Hon’ble Minister of Railways – Shri Piyush Goyal, it was instructed to several zonal railways to eliminate all Unmanned Level Crossings. For the first time, Indian Railways recorded zero accidental deaths in 2019-20 involving passengers. It is worth mentioning that Western Railway has contributed largely & played an important role towards this mission of Hon’ble Railway Minister and with the further elimination of 179 level crossings in the financial year 2019-20, the number of accidents at the railway gates have exponentially decreased. There has been no increase in the consequential accidents as compared to last year and there has been no injury – minor or major in the 3 consequential accidents of this year. In fact, there has been a reduction of 41 % accidents over WR.
Only 23 accidents occurred during the year (2019-20) as compared to 39 accidents occurred in the year (2018-19). A 50% Reduction in Other Train accidents has also been noted. Only four other train accidents occurred during the year (2019-20) as compared to 8 other train accidents occurred in the year (2018-19).
The Signal passing at danger (SPAD) cases have reduced from 6 to 4 (by 33%) during the year (2019-20) as compared with the year (2018-19). This has been achieved through constant efforts of counseling of crew, some actions at crew lobby and providing LRD (yard learning road on foot) & issue of Signal booklet etc.
Likewise, Yard accident cases have also reduced from 21 to 12 (by 43%) during the year (2019-20) with the year(2018-19). To monitor movement, 81 web-based cameras are installed on identified Level Crossings gates. Besides these safety measures, 16 Level Crossing gates have been interlocked against the target of 13 has been done during the year and 644 Non AC coaches other than SLRs & Pantry cars are provided with Fire Extinguisher against the target of 500 during 2018-19.
