RAY

W.RLY TAKING FULL CARE OF ALL TRACKMEN & OTHER STAFF WHO ARE THE REAL CARETAKERS OF OUR LIFE-LINE

W. Rly salutes the grit & hardwork of the Crusaders of Track- Maintainers for their outstanding and dedicated efforts to maintain the safety of the tracks, for plying the ‘Lifeline of the Nation’ inspite of the nationwide lockdown to keep the wheels of freight trains moving inorder to deliver the essentials across the country.

Photo caption: In the first photo Shri Parmeshwar Funkwal – Divisional Railway Manager of Rajkot alongwith other senior divisional officers is seen interacting with the staff present at Rajkot station. The second & third photos portray the relentless work done by the track maintainers. The fourth photo depicts Shri Rafiq Jusab – a track mentor posted at Porbandar station of Bhavnagar division who doubles as a tailor & is seen stitching masks for fellow trackmen. The fifth photo is of a special health camp for trackmen being held at Chavaj station of Vadodara division and the last photo to is of loading of liquid milk into Rail Milk Tank wagons for dispatch to various parts of the country.

With the 21 days nationwide lockdown declared by Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to prevent spread of corona virus in the country, all passenger train services across the country including the suburban local trains have been cancelled upto 14th April, 2020. However, goods trains are running and this requires keeping the tracks in healthy and safe condition to transport essential commodities to different parts of country. Engineering department of W.Rly is contributing it’s every bit in doing so with the help of essential category employess such Trackmen, Keymen, Valvemen, etc who are undertaking activities like Keyman Patrolling, minimum inspections of assets, USFD testing, tamping machines working and minimum essential gang activities are being carried out daily along with adequate precautions like social distancing, all employees wearing mask, sanitization of Equipment and self & thermal scanning etc.Shri Alok Kansal - General Manager of Western Railway has appreciatedthe outstanding & exemplary work done by these crusaders of track maintainers amidst such trying situations and has urged them to ensure all best possible precautions while dispensing their duties. GM Shri Kansal has also instructed all Divisional Rly Managers to take proper care of all their respective track maintainers & other field staff as they are the real care takers of the life line of the Nation.

According to a press release issued by Shri Ravinder Bhakar - Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, despite the lifeline coming to a halt, Western Railway has continued to work at large by ensuring that essential commodities may be made available across the nation in this dire situation. This has been made possible due to the untiring call of duty by various ground staff of W. Rly. The transportation of these essential staff has been arranged by plying workmen specials, tower wagon, light engineer etc. Special health camps are being organized across all the divisions of W. Rlyto cover all the gang men, Group D staff and all the station employees. In Vadodara division, 348 employees from Vishwamitri, Chavaj, Ankleshwar, Kashipura Sarar, Miyagam, Varedia, Palej, Varnama stations were screened and necessary advisory was issued accordingly. Employees who had recent history of travel outside states were advised for home quarantine as a precautionary measure in the wake of COVID – 19 outbreak. A group of Trackmen of W. Rly’s Bhavnagar division has gone beyond their call of duty and prepared 141 masks using the clothes available in the stores, which will then be distributed amongst the gang members. Shri Rafiq Jusab - trackmaintainer of gang number 34, posted at Porbandar station made this commendable contribution. Another section of employees who are working day in and day out are the staff from Signalling & Telecom deptt. Inspite of the lockdown, Signaling & Telecom assets require to be maintained to run the essential goods services safely and timely. Same are being maintained with minimum possible personnel, keeping all the requisite precautions of social distancing, sanitization and personal hygiene. Also, all the telecommunication services of Railways, viz. control communication, Railway internet services, HQ and Division telephone exchanges have been working uninterrupted during the lockdown. The Video – Conferencing (VC) equipment system has been fitted at GM & DRM camp offices to facilitate VC with various departmental resources including with Railway Board. These daily teleconference services are being facilitated by the Telecom Unit with minimum staff to maintain coordination among the divisional officers.

Shri Bhakar further informed that Western Railway is fully committed to its customers and ensuring supply of essential commodities like milk and milk products to different parts of the country. Ahmedabad Division of W. Rly has loaded six rakes of loose milk containing 6,90,000 kg milk in each rake since 15 March 2020. This milk is loaded in specially designed RMT (Rail Milk Tank) wagons. In addition to the above, four parcel rakes and two conventional jumbo rakes have been loaded containing Milk Powder, fresh milk pouches, Cheese, Butter, Biscuits which has been despatched to various destinations such as for Cuttack, Guwahati, Delhi and Jhansi area during last week. Other than these developments, Western Railway has also successfully refunded Rs. 102.72 crores against cancellation of tickets and in Mumbai Division itself refund of Rs. 48.22 crores has been made. Likewise, a total of 14,304 trains have been cancelled including 6,036 Mail/Express trains and 8,268 Passenger trains. Total loss over W. rly upto 26^th March, 2020 has been pegged at Rs 135.66 Cr (inclusive of suburban+ non-suburban). It is noteworthy to mention that suitable monitoring of all activities & arrangements are being carried out by the Principal Head of Deptts. along with their teams to cope with the situation and to ensure smooth implementation of all plans, under the aegis of Shri Alok Kansal - General Manager of Western Railway. The above scenario portrays that Western Railway truly believes in the adage “Work is Worship” and this is reflected even in the tough times of lockdown due to Coronavirus Pandemic. W. Rly continues to serve the nation by lending its hand through essential service, be it freight traffic or medical facility. From security to engineering, Western Railway is always geared to face whatever may be the situation.

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Press Release No. 2020/03Mumbai, 28th March, 2020

WR DECIDES TO SEND ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES IN TIME TABLED PARCEL TRAINS

Photo caption: Goods train containing rice weighing 2,658 tonnes arrives at Rajkot from Ambala Division. Labourers maintain social distancing while unloading the rice from the train.

Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc in small parcel sizes is going to be very important during the lockdown period in the wake of COVID19. To mitigate the difficulties to a certain extent, Western Railway has come forward and has decided to open for transportation of essential items such as medical supplies, equipment and food etc.

As stated by Shri Alok Kansal- General Manager of Western Rly, interested parties may contact parcel offices and Divisions to register their indents. Movement will be by parcel trains point to point as per extent rules.

WR has finalized the time table for Parcel Express for commodities such as Milk Product,Edible Oil, Spices , Groceries,and Biscuits are as under:

1.Ahmedabad(KKF) to Sankhrel(SGTY)

2.Bandra Terminus to New Delhi - Ludhiana

3.Bandra Terminus to Muzaffarpur- Darbhanga

4.Kkf to Cuttack

5.Kkf to Jaipur- Delhi -Chandigarh -Ludhiana

6.Karambeli to Chansari -Guwahati

In addition to these, other probable Parcel Cargo trains are under consideration as under :-

A) Indents in pipe line for VP rakes:

1)Dahanu Rd to Bari Brahaman

2)Kankaria toCuttack

3)Kankaria to Sankrail

4)Kankaria to New Jalpaiguri

B) Other probable routes for VP rake movements for which EOIs can be called -

1)KKF : Agra/Kanpur/

2)Lucknow/Varanasi

3)KKF : Jaipur/Delhi/Chandigarh/Ludhiyana

4)Karambeli to New Guwahati/Azara/Changsari

5)Dahanu Road to Dhupguri

Few more suggested paths can be BDTS to Ludhiana & Ahmedabad to Darbhanga/Muzaffarpur. These probable paths are under consideration & can be finalised subjected to local administration permits movement of trucks and labour handling at originating and terminating points. Talks with concerned traders are also going o­n in this regard. Discussion have been done with M/s CTA Logistics, Western carriers, both Ahmedabad, AMUL products, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) and Mint logistics Karambele, Vapi for loading of parcels for Time Tabled parcel trains.

Despite cancellation of passenger services, the goods services hasn't come to a total halt and the Railway is ensuring through all possibilities to maintain the supply of essential commodities across all parts of country by making sure that the movement of freight trains takes place so that coal reaches the power houses, food grains are available in the granaries and all essential commodities are available. Western Railway has also planned to introduce timetabled parcel trains for quick transportation of essential commodities across the nation. Here are some other efforts made by Western Railway during the lockdown period from 22nd to 27th March, 2020:

●A total of 325 rakes have been used to supply essential commodities such as POL (Petroleum, Oil & Lubricants), salt, cement, coal and containers were loaded amounting to 0.75 million tones.

●During the period 879 freight trains were interchanged with other railways including 440 trains handed over and 439 trains had taken over at different interchange points.

●Despite shortage of labour, all efforts are being made to unload important stock.

●During this period, 6 Millennium Parcel rakes of Parcel Vans/Railway Milk Tankers (RMTs) have been sent to different parts of the country to cope the demands of essential items such as ,milk powder, liquid milk and other general consumer goods:

-Ex Dahanu Road to Bhimsen

-Ex Kakariya to Bhimsen near Kanpur

-Ex Palanpur to Hind Terminal (Palwal)

-Ex Karambeli to New Guwahati

-Ex Palanpur to Hind Terminal

-Ex Palanpur to Hind Terminal

According to a press release issued by Shri Ravinder Bhakar- Chief Public Relations Officer of WRly, recently 42 BCN wagons rake of Goods Train containing rice arrived at Rajkot from Ambala Division. The unloading of this is being done by labours by maintaining social distancing which weighs 2658 tons. Other than these developments, Western Railway has also successfully refunded Rs. 124.62 crores against cancellation of tickets and in Mumbai Division itself refund of Rs. 58.82 crores has been made. Total loss over Western Railway up to 27^th March, 2020 has been pegged at Rs 149.95 Cr (inclusive of suburban+ non-suburban). It is noteworthy to mention that suitable monitoring of all activities & arrangements are being carried out by the Principal Heads of Deptts. along with their teams to cope with the situation and to ensure smooth implementation of all plans, under the aegis of Shri Alok Kansal - General Manager of Western Railway. The above scenario portrays that Western Railway truly believes in the adage “Work is Worship” and this is reflected even in the tough times of lockdown due to Coronavirus Pandemic. W. Rly continues to serve the nation by lending its hand through essential service, be it freight traffic or medical facility. From security to engineering, Western Railway is always geared to face whatever may be the situation.

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