LUMDING JN

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel of N.F. Railway had intercepted and recovered contraband items such as foreign made cigarette and cannabis worth about Rs. 20.01 lakh and a rare species of tortoise during checking at station and in trains during the period from 25th November, 2019 to 5th January, 2020 and apprehended o­ne person involved in the illegal transportation of the tortoise.

A team of RPF/Guwahati conducted checking at Guwahati Railway Station o­n November 27, 2019 and recovered 800 packets of foreign made cigarette worth about Rs. 16 lakh. The recovered contrabands were handed over to Assistant Commissioner of Customs Division, Guwahati for further disposal.

In separate operation o­n that day, RPF team of Rangiya jointly with CPDS team of Rangiya conducted drive in the Train No. 22411 DN (Arunachal Express) from Rangapara North to Rangiya and recovered 54 kgs cannabis valued at Rs. 2.16 lakh.

In another case o­n November 26, 2019, RPF team of Katihar conducted checking in Train No.55770 DN (Katihar - Malda Court passenger) between Kumedpur and Harishchandrapur Railway Station and apprehended o­ne person with recovery of o­ne rare species of tortoise weighing about 8 kgs. Later, the tortoise and the person carrying it were handed over to Forest Range Officer, Malda, West Bengal for further course of action.

On December 7, 2019, RPF of Agartala conducted checking in train No. 01665 Habibganj- Agartala Special at Agartala Railway Station and recovered 12 kgs cannabis worth about Rs. 72 thousand. o­n that day, RPF/Lumding conducted checking in train No. 22502 DN New Tinsukia- SBC Express at Lumding Railway Station and recovered 6 kgs cannabis worth about Rs. 36 thousand. Recovered contrabands were later handed over to Excise Department for further action.

On December 9, 2019, RPF personnel of Katihar jointly with officials of Excise Department, Katihar conducted a drive at Katihar Railway Station and recovered contraband liquor valued about Rs. 5100/-. It may be mentioned here that Katihar station is in Bihar which is a dry state.

Again, RPF personnel conducted checking at New Alipurduar Railway Station o­n January 2, 2020 and recovered 12 kgs cannabis worth about Rs. 72 thousand.

RPF of NFR also rescued as many as 72 minor children during the period from 25th November, 2019 to 5th January, 2020 from different stations and trains and handed over them to their respective guardians or NGOs.

NFR is giving due emphasis towards further betterment of passenger amenities o­n train. Passenger amenities o­n train includes better toilets, seats, drinking water, lightings, AC, o­n board cleanliness service, lilens etc.

100% coaches of NFR have already been provided with mobile charging points for the convenience of travellers. For better cleanliness o­n train, OBHS (On board Housekeeping Services) has been provided in 62 pairs of identified long distance trains in NFR where nominated staffs (Coach Mitra) immediately attends any requirement related to cleanliness. The “Clean Rail” app is also available for 53 pairs of train in NFR having OBHS. The Coach Mitra attends to complains received o­nline generated by the passenger. Shortly it will also be made available for remaining 9 pairs of trains. o­n an average about 168 cleaning requests have been received in “Clean Rail” app per month during the period from April to October, 2019. Clean train station schemes have already been implemented in Katihar, New Jalpaiguri and Guwahati stations. Under this schemem 31 trains are cleaned in Katihar, 43 trains in New Jalpaiguri and 33 trains in Guwahati station enroute their journey.

Quick watering system has already been implemented in Guwahati while work is in progress at Lumding and New Jalpaiguri. o­nce completed, long distance trains running through these stations can be watered quickly and the problem of non-availability water can be addressed. Quick watering system will also be implemented in various important stations like Katihar, Alipurduar, New Coochbehar, New Bongaigaon, Rangapara, Mariani, Badarpur etc. shortly.

Similarly, out of 3193 coaches, 3061 coaches of N.F. Railway have already been provided with LED lights which are not o­nly environment friendly but also gives a better aesthetic feel. Three mechanised laundries at New Jalpaiguri, Kamakhya and Dibrugarh are catering to about 65% of the requirement of providing machine cleaned and washed lilen to passenger. It is expected to increase upto 80% by March, 2020.

All these above initiatives are helping passenger to get better experience during journey by train.