NAGARSOL

- The month of May witnessed the Zone achieving its best ever Parcel earnings both in terms of Single day earnings as well as Monthly earnings

The constant efforts of South Central Railway combined with the Policy initiatives introduced by the Ministry of railways (including both Tariff and non-Tariff concessions) have resulted in the Zone recording its highest ever Parcel earnings in a month during May 2021. The Zone has earned revenue of Rs.19.14 crores by loading 44,374 tonnes of Parcels during the month of May in the current financial year 2021-2022.

The achievement is significant considering the pandemic situation across the nation. Since last year, the Zone has been consistently introducing new initiatives to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, while at the same time ensuring that the supply chain of the essential commodities doesn’t get affected. In addition, special focus is being given to support the agricultural sectors, by initiating Kisan Rails from several new destinations.

The parcel earnings recorded by the Zone during the month of May (i.e., Rs. 19.14 crs) is almost Rs. 3 crores (approx 19%) higher than the previous highest Parcel revenue earned during the month of January 2021. Further, the month has also witnessed the Zone recording the highest ever single day Parcel earnings by earning Rs. 1.099 crores o­n 6th May 2021.

One of the major contributors for this growth has been the 40 Timetabled Parcel Trains operated by the Zone during this period. These trains have helped in transportation of several essential commodities like Fruits, Medicines, Paddy Seeds, Eggs, Fish, Lemon and Ghee among others to different destination across the country. Further, this also includes 62 lakhs litres of Milk transported through Doodh Duronto specials to the National Capital. In addition, SCR has operated a total of 69 Kisan specials transporting 24,748 tonnes of Agricultural produce from Nagarsol, Nuzivd and Lingampet Jagityal, to assist the farm sector in marketing its agricultural produce for better price realization.

The customer friendly initiatives introduced by Indian Railways like Advance Booking facility of Parcel space in all mediums i.e., in Luggage Rooms o­n Passenger carrying trains, Parcel Vans attached to the regular trains (non-indented) and in Timetabled parcel trains since September 2020, has immensely helped the traders, cargo aggregators and farmers, especially those who are handling small quantities for transporting their consignments in a safe, secure, economical and fastest mode as per the planned schedule.

Shri Gajanan Mallya, General Manager of South Central Railway complimented the efforts put in by the Zonal and Divisional teams of Operating and Commercial branches in achieving the best ever parcel revenue in the month of May’2021. He advised the teams to maintain the same momentum in the current financial year. He instructed the Officers and Staff to have a proactive approach in addressing the concerns of the parcel customers and directed to render all out efforts in attracting new traffic, duly strengthening the existing traffic.

· A total of 17 Stations are covered under this first phase of Integrated Video Surveillance System

· Security surveillance monitoring can now be monitored at three levels

Shri Gajanan Mallya, General Manager, South Central Railway inaugurated the Integrated Video Surveillance System (VSS) Control Room at the Zonal level for the first 17 stations of SCR today i.e., 31st May 2021. With this facility made operational, the security surveillance footage over these 17 stations can now be monitored at 3 levels – Station, Divisional Security Control and Zonal Security Control.

The 17 stations covered under this include Railway stations spread across three States: Adilabad, Begumpet, Lingampalli, Manchiryal and Warangal in Telangana; Guntur, Kadapa, Kurnool Town, Nellore, o­ngole, Rajahmundry and Tuni, in Andhra Pradesh; Aurangabad, Dharmabad, Jalna, Nagarsol, and Parli Vaijnath in Maharashtra.

RailTel, a Miniratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, has provided Internet Protocol (IP) based VSS at 13 Railway stations and integrated existing CCTV at 4 stations (i.e., Aurangabad, Guntur, Rajahmundry and Warangal) to set up the centralized control room. This is also the first time that the earlier Internet Protocol (ONVIF) cameras installed by the Railways have been integrated with the new VSS system over Indian Railways.

The Railway Board has entrusted RailTel with the work of providing IP based VSS with video analytics and facial recognition system at all railway stations, premium and EMU coaches. As part of this, RailTel will be providing Video Surveillance System at A1, A, B, C, D and E category stations, coaches of premium trains and suburban EMU coaches.

Talking about the project of providing Video Surveillance System, Shri Puneet Chawla, Chairman and Managing Director, RailTel said ‘The Video Surveillance System will be extended to other stations and coaches soon. Two more stations (Bapatla and Purna) of SCR will have VSS in June-2021 and by the end of 2021-22 total 76 stations of SCR will be covered with this high-tech security system”

To have a better coverage and clearer image four different types of Full HD Cameras – Dome type, bullet types, Pan Tilt Zoom type and Ultra HD-4k cameras are being provided. The recording of the video feeds from CCTV cameras will be stored for 30 days for playback, post event analysis and for investigation purposes. Important videos can be stored for longer duration based o­n request from security agencies.

Talking about the system, Sh. Gajanan Mallya, GM/South Central Railway said, “RailTel has connected 520 CCTV cameras of these 20 stations o­n optical fiber cable to send the video feeds to the centralized CCTV control room where it is being monitored 24X7. 4K resolution Ultra HD cameras have also been deployed to facilitate facial recognition as well. This new VSS is going to enhance the security and safety of the passengers tremendously.”