Western Railway is fully committed to get the best results in Mission loading, and is making all efforts to surpass its previous best figures and create new benchmarks. Under the able guidance of Shri Alok Kansal – General Manager of Western Railway, for the first time WR crossed monthly loading of 8 Million Tonnes in October 2020, by achieving its best ever loading of 8.14 Million Tonnes. This was made possible due to the energetic leadership of Shri Kansal and the dynamic team of Officers and staff who have put in a lot of effort to achieve this commendable goal.
- According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur- Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Rly, the loading of 8.14 Million Tonnes for the month of October 2020, not just crossed last year’s loading of 6.81 million tonnes in Oct 2019, but also the previous best loading of 7.96 Million Tonnes, achieved in January 2015.
- This new benchmark has been achieved after almost six years.
- In the month of October 2020, WR achieved average loading of 5029 wagons per day, improving previous best loading of 4673 wagons in September 2020.
- It is thus evident that the teams at WR are leaving no stone unturned to give their optimum to the organization and the country.
- This milestone could be achieved inspite of the labour constraints arisen due to Covid-19.
- It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given by Indian Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive.
- Business Development Units set up at Zonal & Divisional levels also having regular meetings with existing freight transporters, as well as prospective clients to attract them towards transport by rails.
- The various incentives and customer friendly initiatives that are being offered, are also highlighted to attract business.
- Another factor contributing to sustainable growth momentum is that the speed of freight trains have also been increased.
- Shri Thakur further added that since 23rd March to 31st Oct, 2020, commodities weighing more than 1.63 lakh tonnes have been transported by Western Rly through its 645 parcel special trains, which mainly included agricultural produce, medicines, fish, milk etc.
- The revenue generated through this transportation, has been about Rs 55.37 crore. During this period, 112 milk special trains were run by Western Rly, with a load of more than 85 thousand tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons.
- Similarly, 474 Covid-19 special parcel trains with a load of more than 52 thousand tonnes were also run to transport various essential commodities.
- In addition to this, 59indented rakes carrying about 26 thousand tonnes were also run with almost 100% utilization.
- During the period from 22nd March till 31st Oct, 2020, total 20,045 rakes of goods trains have been used by WR to supply essential commodities amounting to 42.98 million tonnes.
- 39,124 freight trains have been interchanged with other zonal railways, in which 19,518 trains were handed over and 19,606 trains taken over at different interchange points.
- On 1st Nov, 2020, three Parcel Special trains, including a milk rake left from various stations of WR viz. Okha to Guwahati and Dewas to Nagpur.
- A milk special left from Palanpur to Hind Terminal.
Recent Achievement:
With the Covid-19 pandemic hitting the country, the railways had to initially stop passenger services to curb the spread of Coronavirus and for the safety of the passengers. Gradually, with time, services were reintroduced in a phased manner. Though, the freight services were doing well, as special trains were introduced to carry essential commodities, as well as medical supplies to every corner of the country.
- Despite the lockdown, when there were shortage of labour, as well as transport constraints for loading and unloading, Western Railway was not deterred and performed its best commitment towards the nation.
- In continuation to this, Western Railway has now explored other options of generating revenue including Non Fare Revenue (NFR).
- It’s worth mentioning that from 2 new NFR projects, Western Rly has generated revenue of approx Rs 6 crore.
- According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur- Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Rly, in order to monetize assets of Indian Railways and undertake revenue yielding activities, Indian Railways had decided to promote new ideas and concepts for enhancement of non-fare revenue.
Upgradation works at Mumbai Central station:
- In continuation to this, new ideas and concept received under Non Fare Revenue by Western Railway, are always being explored and put into practice.
- The latest one being upgradation of AC Waiting Room with modern amenities at Mumbai Central station.
- In a bid to up the travelling experience of the passengers, Western Rly has awarded a contract for Development, Upgradation, Refurbishment, Maintenance and Manning of AC Waiting room with modern facilities at Mumbai Central station (MMCT) for a period of five years under Non Fare Revenue (NFR) arrangement.
- This initiative would fetch a revenue to the tune of Rs. 18,89,240/- per annum and approx. a total revenue of one crore rupees over the five years contract period.
- This will enable the passengers to have a comfortable and relaxed seating facility with free Wi-Fi, Newspaper/Magazines.
- They can also avail various amenities /services during waiting time on payment basis.
- It is also pertinent to mention that this will save the estimated construction cost of more than Rs. 62 lakhs in developing the waiting room.
- Therefore, this project shall enhance passenger experience while earning revenue and saving cost to Railways.
Other Initiatives:
- Another contract in the anvil is the installation of Dual Display Information System (DDIS) screens & Automated Ticket Checking and Managing Access (ATMA) screens at various stations of Mumbai Division of Western Railway for a period of 5 years under Non Fare Revenue (NFR) arrangement.
- This initiative would further fetch revenue to the tune of Rs. 95,11,111/- per annum and approx. a total revenue of Rs. 5 crore over the five year contract period.
- The DDIS screens shall provide various useful information to passengers such as fare, other ticket related information as well as social messages e.g. Corona related information including advertisements.
- Thus, these screens would serve as information bridges between Railways and passengers.
- These digital displays would also give modern outlook to booking windows which is the first post of interaction between passengers and Railways.
- The ATMA screens installed would have temperature checking and mask recognition features in addition to contactless ticket scanning in view of the current pandemic.
Source: Western Railway-Press Release
