Union minister for Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Friday flagged off three new trains and announced five more trains and extension of services of four existing EMU local trains of South Eastern Railway.
He also inaugurated Paperless Ticketing Service for Suburban passengers through smart phone and display of first AC Electric Locomotive at Regional Rail Museum, Howrah of Eastern Railway, announced Green Initiatives in stations and rakes of Metro Railway, Kolkata and commencing of the Lowering of Tunnel Boring Machine of Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd. during a programme at Howrah station.
Minister In-charge of Agriculture Marketing Arup Roy and MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar graced the occasion as guests of honour.
A K Goel, General Manager of South Eastern Railway, RK Gupta, General Manager of Eastern Railway, Ashwani Kapoor, General Manager of Metro Railway and Chairman & Managing Director of Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Limited and other distinguished guests attended the programme.
Prabhu spoke about the inititiatives taken by the Railways to offer better customer services and fulfillment of budget announcements. In this connection, he mentioned about passenger friendly measures for booking and reservation of tickets and improvement in quality of food served in trains.
He spoke about efforts for improvement in cleanliness at station premises, coaches of trains and upgradation of interior of coaches.
Speaking about the different passenger amenity measures, Prabhu mentioned about the newly constructed Mechanised Laundries which have resulted in improved linen quality.
He said as per catering policy, passengers could now have quality food of their own choice during their journey. He also spoke about energy efficiency programmes, green energy initiatives and energy audit in railways. Prabhu said that Railway’s top most priority is safety and security of passengers and recently launched Apps for security of women have become very popular as thousands of people have downloaded it.
He added that Railway’s main focus is customer service and mentioned about the increased use of twitter for redressal of grievances and complaints of passengers. He advised all General Managers of Indian Railways to ensure punctuality of train services and take steps to increase the comfort of passengers.
He also mentioned about collaboration with Japan for improvement of railway infrastructure in the country and sought assistance of different state governments and Railway employees for smooth functioning and further development of railway network.