Patna: East Central Railway (ECR) on Thursday said it was on track towards achieving the targets fixed for the current financial year 2017-18, and has already completed several projects including laying of 58km of new railway lines under its jurisdiction, doubling 14km of tracks and electrification of 534.5km of railway tracks.
The electrification work that has been completed during this fiscal include 250km of railway line between Mansi (Khagaria) and Katihar, and 171km on the Bakhtiyarpur (Patna)-Rajgir-Tilaiya-Manpur sections.
"We are focusing on electrification of tracks as part of adopting an environment-friendly steps in the railway," ECR additional general manager Anoop Kumar said. "We are also determined to end unmanned railway crossings and we are working towards it."
ECR covers major parts of Bihar and extends to some areas of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, and has 1988 level crossings, of which 449 unmanned ones are on the broad gauge. A few others are on the metre gauge.
"Six unmanned crossings have been closed down and nine have been interlocked with railway signals during 2017-18. We have also appointed 468 'gate mitras' to man the unmanned level crossings under our zone," Kumar said.
The additional GM was providing details about the achievements during the current financial year after revealing details about the railway budget for 2018-19. Divisional railway managers of Danapur and Sonepur, R.P. Thakur and Atulya Sinha, Railway Protection Force (RPF) inspector-general Ravindra Verma, chief public relations officer Rajesh Kumar and several other officials were present on the occasion.
As part of the campaign to save energy, ECR is now using only LED bulbs to electrify 153 of 734 railway stations under it. It also started 12 new trains during the current fiscal, expanded the route of two others and increased the frequency of two trains - Patliputra-Lucknow Express (five days a week from thrice previously) and Kamakhya-Ranchi Express (twice weekly from once a week earlier).
Kumar added that several other ongoing projects will be completed soon. Among these is providing escalators at Patna Junction. Their installation is virtually complete and they will be made operational by March end. Escalators at Muzaffarpur and Dhanbad stations have also been installed.
"Work is going on to provide escalator facilities to passengers at nine railway stations that also include Samastipur, Gaya, Mughalsarai, Hajipur, Barauni and Darbhanga. All these will be made operations by the end of financial year 2017-18," Kumar added.
ECR has declared the Sakri-Biraul railway section in Darbhanga district as a "fully green corridor", which means no open defecation happens along it. It has also equipped five long distance trains with bio-toilets to cut down faeces falling on tracks.
