Eastern railway plagued by disruptions, encroachment

Posted on 27th Feb 2015 11:58 am by mohit kumar

Kolkata, Feb 26 (IANS) Eastern Railway, which serves three states with 2,642 km of track, is plagued by frequent disruptions and encroachment, its general manager R.K. Gupta said Thursday.

"Last year, we had 227 disruptions to traffic by way of agitation, 'rail roko', bandh and hooliganism affecting the punctuality of trains," Gupta told the media.

"This you can say has been a failure for us because we have failed to prevent that. Even people holding constitutional positions have not been able to do anything about that," he said.

He said encroachment of platforms was another major concern.

"Most platforms on the suburban routes have been taken over by vendors. While we have been undertaking drives to check these encroachment, we have to face agitations. You can say that is another failure on our part."

Talking about the budgetary allotment, Gupta said the zone has been allotted Rs.1,866 crore for new projects.

"(This) is an increase of 24 percent over the original budget last year and nine percent over the revised budget," he said.

He said last year the total freight carried by the zone was 62 million tonnes. "We are targeting to surpass at least 65 million tonnes this year. We also (hope) to substantially increase our earnings," he said.

Talking about new projects, Gupta said CCTV cameras will be installed at 11 stations while the number of cameras in Howrah and Sealdah stations will go up to 200 each.

He said Wi-Fi facilities will come up at 26 stations.

Other news

Ronaldo-Coca-Cola Controversy: Indian Companies Seizing Opportunities; Fevicol gave the tagline - neither the bottle will be removed nor the value will decrease, Amul is saying - we have never been sidelined

Coca-Cola suffered heavy losses due to the anger of Cristiano Ronaldo, the world's famous footbal

Corona's graph rises in Delhi-Mumbai, Lt Governor holds meeting with CM Kejriwal, concern raised by Aditya Thackeray's statement

Coronavirus Cases News: In the country's capital Delhi (Delhi) and financial capital Mumbai (Mumb

Weather Update today: Will it rain again or will there be a relief? Yellow alert in 9 states, read - latest update of IMD

Monsoon is approaching, but still, many days are left for it to be completely gone. The Meteorolo

Aamir Khan: All of Aamir's arrogance vanished in one meeting, he even accepted the censor board's cuts, added PM Modi's name

Producer-actor Aamir Khan has not only accepted all the cuts suggested by the censor board in his

Biden's visit to Saudi: Why does President Biden, the fiercest opponent of Saudi, want to be friends with him? What is the meaning of his visit - an expert view

US President Joe Biden will visit the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia during his firs

G20 Dinner: What were PM Modi and Jinping talking to each other? picture of a handshake surfaced

G-20 Summit Bali: A picture has surfaced of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi

Dasara: Nani's Dussehra can do a bumper opening at the box office, and has earned so many crores in booking

The kind of craze about South films has increased in different parts of India in the last few mon

PM Narendra Modi said in NCC rally, 'Stay away from drugs, youth can change the fate of India'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the National Cadet Corps (NCC) rally at Cariappa Ground in

'Your father's...' Mallikarjun Kharge got angry at the former Prime Minister's son in Rajya Sabha, uproar in the House.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge suddenly got angry while addressing the Rajya Sabha. He ven

Clear view that government doesn't want me: Amartya Sen

New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) Nobel laureate Amartya Sen Friday said that despite Nalanda University