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Bengal

Howrah Division bags shield for outstanding performance, Sealdah wins runners-up cup for overall efficiency

S N Agrawal, General Manager, Eastern Railway handed over the prestigious Overall Efficiency Shield to the Howrah Division for outstanding performance while Sealdah Division bagged the Overall Efficiency Runners Up Cup on the occasion of the 62nd Railway Week celebration on Thursday.

It was organised by Eastern Railway at B C Roy Institute, Sealdah.Jasidih station under Asansol Division won the Best Kept Station Cup, while the Safety Shield went to the Sealdah Division and the Security Shield was awarded to Howrah (II) Division and the Environment Management Shield to Malda & Howrah Divisions jointly.

Agrawal said that during 2016-17, Eastern Railway was able to load 60.21MT of goods, surpassing Railway Board's stiff target, and was 4.21 percent more than that of the last year. This is the best ever loading performance of the Eastern Railway. Eastern Railway earned Rs 4,533 crore during 2016-17 from freight traffic which was 3.10 percent more than that of the previous year. Moreover, during 2016-17, Eastern Railway carried 118 crore of passengers and earned Rs 2,753 crore in comparison to 117 crore passengers carried and Rs 2,457 crores earned during last year. As a result, the total revenue of Eastern Railway was increased by 9.23 percent over the previous year.

He maintained that Eastern Railway has put an additional thrust on cleanliness drive all over its jurisdiction in the line of Swachh Bharat Mission of Government of India. The Railway has also taken initiatives to tap solar energy in a big way at various installations. Solar panels have been provided at different level crossing gates. To ensure safety, the Eastern Railway eliminated all the remaining 61 unmanned level crossings in its system during the last year. Security of passengers is an important area of Eastern Railway's concern. As many as 570 trains of Eastern Railway were being escorted by RPF personnel everyday. RPF, Eastern Railway has launched a new security helpline number 182 for security of passengers during the time of exigencies.

Agrawal further added that Eastern Railway has taken a number of steps for enhancing passenger amenities at stations and on trains. These include SMS/Web-based on-board housekeeping system, monitoring system, launching of paperless un-reserved ticketing through smartphones and installation of Point of Sale (POS) machines at different PRS and UTS counters.

During 2016-17, Eastern Railway commissioned the New Jubilee Bridge (Sampreeti Setu) at a cost of Rs 290 crore over river Ganges between Bandel and Naihati stations, which was indeed an engineering marvel. Agrawal also said that during 2016-17, the Eastern Railway succeeded in commissioning 95.35 kms of new lines, gauge conversion and double lines over its jurisdiction. He also said that since human resource is its asset, Eastern Railway is committed to create better working environment and introduced multi-faceted staff welfare measures for the benefit of the employees.
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