KHURJA JN

North Central Railway

Headquarter

Public Relations

Prayagraj

No. 11PR/11/2019/Press ReleaseDate: 06.11.2019

Freight Customers Meet organised by North Central Railway in a bid to give boost to freight loading and better coordination with premium loading customers

On 06.11.2019, Freight customers meet was organised by North Central Railway at Prayagraj. This meeting among representatives of leading freight loading organisations from public and private sector and officials of North Central Railway was chaired by General Manager North Central Railway Sri Rajiv Chaudhry. Sr officials from NTPC, IOCL, HPCL, Ultratech Cement, Inland Container Depots Dadri, PPGCL Bewra, Senior representative from chamber of commerce, leading Ballast loaderswere representing customers while from North Central Railway side Principal Chief Operations Manager NCR Sri Ravi Valluri, Principal Chief Commercial Manager NCR Sri M N Ojha, other Principal head of Departments and other senior officials of traffic and commercial branch of of North Central Railway were present.

At the outset Chief Commercial Manager Freight Marketing Smt. Anu Mani Tripathi welcomed all customers and NCR officials in the meeting and made a brief presentation covering loading scenario prevailing over North Central Railway and customer wise specific items. Chief Freight TrafficManager Sri P K Ojha discussed operational issues requiring better coordination between Railway and freight loaders for improved availability of rakes and lesser damage to wagons during loading and unloading.

Speaking o­n the occasion PCCM Sri M. N.Ojha quoted Mahatma Gandhiwho o­nce said that “A customer is the most important visitor o­n our premises. He is not dependent o­n us. We are dependent o­n him”. He said that under the dynamic leadership of GM Sri Chaudhry, NCR has implemented many reforms to ensure transparent and hassle-free loading regime for our valued customers.

PCOM NCR Sri Ravi Valluri said that North Central Railways plays pivotal role in transportation of Men & Materialand runs premium services like Vande Bharat and Tejas express besides running highest number of high speed trains clocking upto 160 Kmph. He said that against NCR’s best ever loading performance of 15.40 MT in FY 18-19 it has been given a stiff target of 16.25 MT loading and urged supportfrom freight loading partners to realize this goal .

General Manager Sri Rajiv Chaudhry in his address said that meeting with freight customers is organised with an aim to help our friends from business community in ease of rail transportation which in-turn will helpRailways in getting much needed freight transportation.He urged all freight customers and people from chamber of commerce that Railway is most environment friendly mean of transportation and increased transport through Railway will cut down o­n pollution while NCR will be able to realize its stiff loading target of FY 2019-20. He also added that Railways has already planned to revamp its goods sheds in big way and a dedicated fund allotment for development of goods shed is also being planned.Sri Chaudhry also suggested that we need to run more timetabled container trains to certain destinations from Inland Container depots o­n designated days which will motivate business community to utilize this facility over Road transport. Sri Chaudhry also informed that medium and small players should utilize benefits of piecemeal, mini rake and more than o­ne station loading permitted by Indian railways since September this year. He also added that non-levy of 15% busy season surcharge should help our valued customers for more and more transportation of their goods through Rail.

After address by GM individual freight customers presented loading plan of their unit and coordination issues with Railway were also taken up. IOCL and HPCL informed that for conversion from BS-IV to BS-VI their refineries shall be under shut down for about 45 days however all efforts shall be made to minimise impact of this mandatory upgradation to meet pollution norms. CONCOR also assured that steps have been taken and loading should show positive growth in next o­ne month. Inland Container Depot ArshiaKhurja said that loading to its Khurja Facility will increase substantially with upcoming major project of Jewar Airport and THDC super thermal power plant in Uttar Pradesh. NCR requested ARIK Khurja to increase loading of Molasses. Representatives from Chamber of commerce urged Railway to start door to door delivery of parcel and more time tabled parcel express. GM NCR Sri Rajiv Chaudhry assured all customers that that their suggestions have been noted and shall be acted upon promptly.

Indian Railways has already announced many Freight incentives schemes to increase Railway Freight Loading which will give a boost to Indian economy.These initiatives applicable since 12^th September covers major subsidies in freight charges, steps towards doing business with ease, reforms related to weighments of rakes, digitalisation for improved transparency and accountability etc .

North Central Railway

Headquarter

Public Relations

Prayagraj

No. 11PR/10/2019/Press ReleaseDate: 21.10.2019

Tundla Jn. gets most advanced Electronic interlocking system- A milestone for safer , faster and efficient train operations o­n Grand chord route of New Delhi-Howrah

North Central Railway is o­nly Railway which caters to 10% of total Indian Railways’ traffic through just 5% of total assets o­n IR. It is also the o­nly Railway which maintains and operate o­n 53 % of New Delhi-Howrah, the most important and busiest Railway route. Mobility o­n this Grand Chord route falling o­n North Central Railway between Ghaziabad and Pt. DeenDayal Upadhyay Jn. is the key in overall movement of passengers and freighttraffic from North to East. Tundla is an important Jn. station o­n this supersaturated route operating at 160% of its designed capacity connecting main line of with Agra Cantt. Jn. Despite being extremely important from train operation point of view ,Tundla Jn. was still continuing with mechanically interlocked signaling system of 1955 vintage. This system required manual operation of levers for receipt and dispatch of trains from 05 different cabins. Manual operation and coordination among cabins took approximately 05-07 minutes to handle each train at important Jn. station thus limiting its handling capacity to maximum 190-200 train o­n daily basis. Further Mechanical signaling also required upgrade to match with global safety standards in train operation. Layout of Tundla Jn. also needed important changes to accommodate longer trains and more route combinations for efficient train operations. Need for this change was felt a long back ago and work for remodeling and removal of Mechanical signaling was sanctioned way back in 1998-99, however actual execution got delayed due to extreme pressure of train operation at Tundla Jn. station as execution required cancellation of sizable number of trains which was not feasible unless an innovative and out of the box solution to this problem was found by NCR in 2019.

Realizing the importance of this work GM Sri Rajiv Chaudhry motivated and guided the team of multi-disciplinary team of plannerswho came out with innovative solution to utilize newly constructed eastern dedicated freight corridor section between Bhadhan- Khurja section for diversion of some goods trains bypassing Tundla Jn. thus minimizing cancellation of passenger trains during execution of this work. After meticulous planning execution of this mammoth work started by Allahabad division, NCR construction organization and NCRPU from 2^nd September 2019 in a coordinated fashion.

On the historic day of 20^th October, 2019 , 65 years old Mechanical Signaling system was replaced by most advanced and safer system of Electronic Interlocking. With commissioning of this system and some post commissioning works expected to be over by 17.11.2019 following major benefits shall be achieved in trains operation:

1.Train handling time reduced from existing 05-07 minutes to 30-60 seconds trough centralized power cabin enhancing handling capacity of Jn. to 250 per day from existing 200 maximum, thus less detention of trains outside Tundla and improved Punctuality of Trains.

2.Train operation towards Agra will be immensely benefitted with two addition platforms and extension of three existing platforms no. 3,4&5 to cater full length trains o­n main line.

3.All UP-direction yard lines are now fit for passenger train movement thus efficient handling of more coaching train.

4.Length of Yard lines increased to handle longer freight and passenger trains.

5.Double exit facility provided to ARME for immediate movement in both sides during accidents etc.

6.Centralized fail-safe operation through power cabin by just click of the mouse button replacing cumbersome, inefficient and manual operation spread across 05 cabins. Substantial saving o­n manpower requirement.

This work will go a long way in improving punctuality of trains o­n New Delhi- Howrah main lineand benefits shall be manifold during incoming foggy season through safe and detention free handling of trains at Tundla Jn.General Manager North Central Railway Sri Rajiv Chaudhry commended DRM Allahabad and team of officers , staff & supervisorsfor sucessful execution of this important Electronic Interlocking work having 613 route combinations which isonly second to Kharagpur in South eastern Railway with 800 routes. NCR is pioneer in EI work and had successfully executed 505 routes Electronic Interlocking at Juhi near Kanpur central in 2011 which was biggest EI of IR at that time .