The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has asked for special financial package for restoration of its property damaged by the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani.
A meeting held under the chairmanship of member Rolling Stock Railway Board Rajesh Agrawal was told that the ECoR suffered a loss of Rs. 600 crore during Cyclone Fani, which included Rs.400 crore in the form of damages and Rs.200 crore under loss in earning capacity.
Agarwal appreciated East Coast Railway for the quickest possible restoration of train services after Cyclone Fani and complimented all members of ECoR for being the highest loading Railways over Indian Railways.
The ECoR will create a new record in financial year 2019-20 by entering the 200 million tonne group of Railways and it will be the first Railway Zone ever to load more than 200 million ton in any year.
Agarwal announced at the meeting that the Puri Railway station ready in all respects, as it was or even better than pre-Cyclone Fani stage before the Ratha Yatra. target is given to beautify and upgrade the Puri railway Ssation by July 1.
He said 194 special trains will run and lakhs of devotees are expected to use trains to reach Puri to witness the Rath Yatra.
The number of LHB German Linke Hoffman Bush coaches in East Coast Railway will be increased from 15 to 30 and all important trains like Janshatabdi Express will have LHB coaches.
He said East Coast Railway area will have special type of wagons to carry 4-wheeler automobiles and 2-wheelers from far off production places for the benefit of Local automobile dealers.
The workshop at Mancheswar will be upgraded and will now have facilities to handle maintenance of LHB coaches also.
Phase-II of MEMU Shed at Khurda Road is sanctioned. This will help in converting all passenger trains in this area to MEMU coaches. In future all passenger trains will be having MEMU coaches to improve punctuality of trains.
Mechanised Laundry at Puri and Bhubaneswar are likely to be functional in next three months, he said adding that more wagons will be given to East Coast Railway so that local industries and coal producers and power plants are benefited.
Agarwal said all coaches will have VENTURI system of odour-less bio toilets in all trains run by East Coast Railway. 96 per cent of coaches of East Coast Railway have bio-toilets fitted and the rest 4 per cent will be fitted very soon.
He further said new technology of ‘Head On Generation’ (HOG) will replace conventional power cars in trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi to give additional space to attach more coaches, thereby giving scope for more seats for the passengers. (UNI)
