GENERAL MANAGER’S
63rd REPUBLIC DAY MESSAGE - 2012
Dear members of the Railway Fraternity,
On this auspicious occasion of the 63rd Republic Day, I wish all the Railway Employees, their families and our valued customers a happy and prosperous New Year.
South Western Railway is playing a vital role in the development of the region by carrying Iron Ore, Coal and other raw materials for the Industries, in addition to carrying passengers to all parts of the country.
South Western Railway has demonstrated remarkable turnaround in its performance in eight years of its existence, both in physical and financial terms. The performance during the nine months of the current financial year has been satisfactory as far as passenger traffic is concerned. The number of passengers carried has gone up from 128.96 millions to 139.43 millions i.e. an increase of 8.12 %. The originating passenger earnings has increased approximately by 7.45 % from Rs. 783.30 Crores to Rs.841.65 Crores.
Trend is, however, not so encouraging on freight side. Due to the ban imposed on loading of Iron Ore for export by the Government of Karnataka, SWR could carry only 23.8 MT of freight during the first nine months of this year, against 25.6 MT carried during the previous year. As a result, the originating freight earnings upto December, this year is approximately Rs. 1658.82 Cr, which is 21.59 % less than the previous year earnings during the same period.
It is our endeavour to provide comfortable rail travel to passengers and for this, various measures have been taken to improve safety, security, passenger amenities, cleanliness, and punctuality.
Information Technology is being used in a great way to provide Passenger amenities by installing Audio Video Enquiry Terminals, Digital Display boards, Coach locating guiding system etc.
For easy availability of tickets, Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) has been extended to cover 231 stations and reserved tickets can now be obtained from 131 locations. In addition to this, 15 nos. of Jansadharan Ticket Booking Sevak (JTBS) have been appointed in the current year to issue Unreserved Tickets to traveling passengers. The total number of JTBS have now increased to 47 nos.
All the 9 pairs of new trains of SWR, announced in the Railway Budget 2011-12, have already been introduced. Apart from this, frequency of 2trains and extension of 4 trains announced in the Budget have also been implemented.
To clear rush of passengers, 4303 Special trains were run and 5402 extra coaches were attached during April 2011 to December 2011. This Railway has also achieved punctuality of 94.5 % surpassing target of 90% set by Railway Board during the year 2011-12.
In order to provide good quality food at reasonable price, “Jan Ahar” outlets have been commissioned at Yesvantpur, Bangalore City and Hubli Railway Stations. In addition to this, Six “Rail Aahar” outlets have also been commissioned, three at Bangalore City, two at Hubli Station and one at Bangalore Cantt. Station.
A special thrust is being given to improve infrastructure and line capacity on various sections of South Western Railway. During the current financial year 18kms of New Line, 61 kms of Gauge Conversion and 31 kms of doubling are targeted for completion. Work on 18 kms of New Line between Sakrayapatna and Kanivehalli has been completed. Gauge Conversion of Shimoga – Talguppa has been completed with the commissioning of 40 kms stretch between Anandapuram – Talguppa section. The double line of 22 kms between Arsikere and Devanur has also been commissioned.
Sports persons of our Railway are performing extremely well during 2011-12 by bringing laurels to SWR in different disciplines at the All India Railway Championships. The SWR Badminton and Golf team has emerged as the champions and the Swimming team was runners-up. Body building team secured third place and Women’s Basketball team finished fourth in the All India Championships.
The efforts of SWR Women’s Welfare Organization in promoting various social & welfare activities for the betterment of lives of Railwaymen and their families are praiseworthy. Scouts & Guides of SWR are helping the administration by undertaking various activities like launching campaigns at Unmanned LC Gates, imparting First Aid Training to Railway employees and improving environment. Scouts & Guides have also organized two national level events this year i.e., the Centenary Year of Girls Guiding at Mysore and Adventure & Trekking Camporee at Castle Rock which is the first of its kind on Indian Railways. Their efforts are praiseworthy.
The Civil Defence Organization on SWR is preparing us for facing any disaster in a better way by imparting training to volunteers. They have participated in the National Disaster reduction day organized by the Karnataka State Civil Defence & Home Guards and Fire & Emergency services at Bangalore. This was appreciated by His Excellency, the Governor of Karnataka, Shri Hansraj Bhardwaj.
All these achievements would not have been possible without the positive support of recognized Trade Unions and Associations of South Western Railway. I thank them for their active involvement in resolving various problems.
I take this opportunity to compliment all the officers, supervisors and staff for the hard work put in by them for achieving our objectives.
On this auspicious day, let us resolve to work together as a team to improve our performances. I wish you and your families, peace and prosperity in the days ahead and success in all endeavours.
Jai Hind.
(A K Mital)
Hubli General Manager
26-01-2012
