Enhancing speed, scale and safety in rail operations: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is working to improve transparency in procurement and ensure timely payments to vendors to reduce costs even as it works towards enhancing speed, scale and safety in rail operations, railway minister Piyush Goyal has said.

“I have told officials to standardise elevators’ design and come up with a number — how many would we require in the next three years,” Goyal said at a rail conference organised by industry body CII on Wednesday. “We could tender them out and easily save a lot of cost because of the scale of orders.”

The minister also urged the industry to come up with advanced technology for modernisation. “We are looking at adopting new technology in a time-bound manner,” he said. “The industry should come up with innovative solutions in track renewal, rail coaches and signalling.”

Goyal, who took charge of railways last month, said the organisation has “enhanced delegation of power and authority down the line. The Rail Board is now meeting once a week to clear all pending decisions,” he said. The Railways has decided to increase the annual output of its Modern Rail Coach Factory, Rae Bareli, to 5,000 coachesm from 1,000 now, at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, he said.

FIRST GE ENGINE LANDS
The first of the 40 General Electric (GE) diesel-electric locomotives ordered arrived on Wednesday. The prototype of the GE locomotive will be tested by the Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) on different routes, after which it will be approved by commissioner railway safety. According to terms of the agreement with GE, the railways will procure more engines after RDSO approval.

The ministry had in 2015 signed a contract to manufacture 960 diesel locomotives in Marhowra, Bihar, with GE and import another 40 from the US. The company was offered assured offtake of Rs 14,600 crore over 10 years.

“This will be the first ever diesel-electric locomotive running on Indian tracks which complies with the international standard on emissions known as UIC 1,” GE said in a statement. The locomotive was designed at John F Welch Technology Centre in Bengaluru, it said.

RAINS CAUSED STAMPEDE
Meanwhile, a railways investigation report on the Elphinstone bridge stampede in Mumbai that killed 23 people last month has blamed heavy rains for the tragedy.

The probe panel, headed by the chief security officer of Western Railway, in its report said the stampede was caused by heavy rains which forced people outside at the ticket counters to rush to the already overcrowded staircase for cover.