Bhubaneswar: Though the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has suffered a total loss of Rs 600 crore due to Cyclone Fani, it is all set to create a record by loading 200 million tonne of freight in 2019-20 financial year, a senior railway official said Saturday.
This was revealed at a review meeting chaired by Railway Board member (Rolling Stock) Rajesh Agrawal. “ECoR will be the first Railway Zone ever to load more than 200 million tonne in any year,” said Agrawal.
The announcement was made by Agrawal in the presence of ECoR General Manager Vidya Bhushan and Additional General Manager Sudhir Kumar in the meeting. He complimented all members of ECoR for being the highest loading Railway zone in Indian Railways.
Stating that ECoR has suffered a total loss of Rs 600 crore during Cyclone Fani, the official said Rs 400 crore is in the form of damages and Rs 200 crore is in the form of loss in earning capacity. “ECoR has asked for special financial package to help in restoration works,” the official said.
The ECoR authorities informed the meeting that the station building at Puri will be fit and ready in all respects soon. “The entire station will be ready to receive all special trains during Rath Yatra. A total of 194 special trains will run to Puri during the annual festival. Target has been set to beautify and upgrade Puri station by July 1,” the officials said.
Currently, the ECoR is having 15 rakes of Linke Hoffmann Bush (LHB) coaches, the most modern coach. This will go up to 30, the railway officials informed.
This apart, the ECoR area will soon have special type of wagons to carry four-wheeler automobiles and two-wheelers from far off production places to this area which immensely benefit the local automobile dealers.
The workshop at Mancheswar will be upgraded and will now have facilities to handle maintenance of LHB coaches also, ECoR officials said.
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. It will improve punctuality of trains, the meeting resolved.
While mechanised laundry at Puri and Bhubaneswar is likely to be functional very soon in next three months, the quick watering facilities for coaches will help in better water supply and availability of water in passenger coaches.
More number of wagons will be given to ECoR so that local industries and coal producers and power plants are benefited, the meeting decided.
East Coast Railway has introduced VENTURI system of odour-less bio-toilets. All coaches will have VENTURI system in all trains run by East Coast Railway. However, 96 per cent of coaches of East Coast Railway have bio-toilets fitted. The remaining four per cent will be fitted very soon.
New technology of ‘Head On Generation’ (HOG) will replace conventional power cars in trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and others. This will give additional space to attach more coaches, thereby giving scope for more seats for passengers, they said.