Title - Railway should concentrate on infrastructure: Chandrasekhar

Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala State Planning Board Vice Chairman K M Chandrasekhar today wanted the Railways to concentrate on infrastructure development in the state. "We should pay an urgent look at issues like improvement of infrastructure. The scale of operations and management set up also demand a fresh look," he said here while speaking at a function to mark the 57th Railway Week celebrations. Lack of enough fund is the main obstacle of development in railways and heavy investment should be generated for its overall development, he said. Rajesh Agrawal, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Thiruvananthapuram, said the division had achieved remarkable growth in passenger as well as goods earnings. "Division's passenger earnings have grown by 8.5 per cent to an all time high of Rs 565 crores. It is set to cross Rs 600 crores this year. Goods earnings have grown by 4.8 per cent to cross Rs 200 crores for the first time ever," he said. Raiway Protection Force (RPF) personnel including women constables have been deployed in all the 18 night running mail/express trains and all the 24 night running passenger trains to strengthen the security of travellers especially of ladies, he added. Meritorious awards were presented to the employees in various departments of the division for their remarkable services. Additional Divisional Railway Manager V Rajeevan and union leaders S Gopikrishna and K Sasidharan were also present.