Eastern railway plagued by disruptions, encroachment

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.