Suresh Prabhu’s Indian Railways Embrace New Achievements, in a Bid to Bolster up Revenue

After the derailment of Utkal Express and Indore-Patna Express near Kanpur, the Indian Railways has been once again put under the scanner. The questions like is Indian Railways secure enough to carry the passengers? And what’s on their cards? Bombards our mind quite often! Well, candidly speaking, a lot of hopes were pinned from Suresh Prabhu as a railway minister. Being a chartered accountant by the profession, it was believed that he could do justice to the financially bleeding industry. So, let’s have a look at the developments that he stepped into:

Creating a benchmark in the Indian history, he literally put an end to a 92 year- old tradition of presenting a separate railway budget. The reason cited was the Indian Railways wish to raise the extra capital expenditure through this step. His budget mainly focused on productivity, efficiency and digitization.  Here are the highlights of his achievements:-

• Increased Production– The Railways plans to increase the production by building up 2 loco factories and to supply world class locomotives. The new factory will be installed to manufacture EMU coaches. This will add some weight to the make in India initiative.
• On call cleaning service, dedicated housekeeping services– After bearing the brunt from the recent CAG report that exposed the bitter truth about their cleaning services, it seems that Indian Railways is taking sufficient measures to abate this problem. They have recently roped into National Institute of Fashion Design to manufacture light-weight blanket with less wool content.
• Cleanliness Drive-Keeping in tandem with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Indian Railways plans to install bio-toilets or green toilets in several coaches and railway stations. A new cleanliness drive called Swachh Pakhwada has been organized wherein various workshops and training programs will be conducted in conjunction with NGOS for the office and staff to make them aware about cleanliness onboard.
• Indian Railways want to go Hi-tech– The Indian Railways plans to go hi-tech through the several ways. Hence, they have launched a train Tejas Express between Mumbai and Goa that offers passengers’ premium facilities like automatic doors, secured gangways, corridors between the coaches, etc. The board has also planned to install display screen on various stations under Railway Display Network project to communicate with the passengers. Talking technology wise, Siemens has planned to procure IGBT technology for the Indian Railways.  This technology aims to minimize the heat and traction, while making the process of acceleration steadfast. Even the Indian Railways plans to launch its own solar powered train. Suresh Prabhu also plans to introduce a concept wherein online railway tickets will reach at your doorstep. If that was not sufficient, Indian Railways also plans to build airport like stations without spending money. The rail Saarthi app will cater different services under one roof.
• Indian Railways will also take care of Gen Y needs-The government also wishes to provide video entertainment on trains on long journeys. The video content providers like Viacom 18, Zee, Hungama and Shemaroo have already bid for the project.
• Fuel cashless drive– the Indian Railways will now make digital payment as mandatory at 15 stations. The passengers will be required to make online payment for buying food items, water, urinals, etc. They can make payment through a mobile wallet, debit card or credit card.

Highlights of the achievements

After the spate of the recent accidents, government plan also plans to replace rail coaches made of stainless steel instead of carbon steel to minimize the impact of the accidents.

Now, these plans are sufficient enough to convey the big dreams that Modi Government has. This makes us believe that though Indian Railways has faced several traumatic situations including the resignation of the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu but still the minister is trying to revive Indian Railways or turn into a profitable venture. We believe the best is yet to come.