Bengaluru: Minister for Railways, Piyush Goyal, who attended a review meeting of the Bengaluru division of the South Western Railway(SWR) here on Saturday, asked railway officers to expedite the process of electrification, track renewal and installation of bio toilets, and also give greater emphasis to safety.
He also advised them to develop an action plan for eliminating unmanned level crossings in the next one year instead of waiting till 2019-20 as planned, according to an official press release.
“The minister suggested various schemes such as granting of out-of-turn promotion for the staff ,who take timely action to avert accidents,” the statement added.
He asserted that such schemes will boost the morale of the staff. Terming the recent train accidents as “unfortunate”, Goyal called upon the railway staff to work diligently for ensuring complete safety in running trains.
More AC coaches demanded
Meanwhile, a member of the Karnataka Railway Vedike, Krishna Prasad has in a letter to the Divisional Railway Manager and Senior Commercial Divisional Railway Manager of South Western Railway's Bengaluru division, has suggested inclusion of airconditioned coaches on the three express trains heading to tourist destinations in Karnataka.
The Bengaluru to Hassan tri-weekly, the Yeshwanthpur to Mangaluru and Hubballi to Mysuru via Bengaluru trains were introduced earlier this year but still did not have AC coaches, he noted.
His letter was in response to the feedback sought by the railways before it conducts its annual revision of train timings and frequencies in October/November.
Asked about the possibility of introducing AC coaches on these trains as suggested, Mr Sridhar Murthy, Senior Commercial, DRM said there were no such immediate plans.
