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Plan to convert all 9-car suburban services to 12-car
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The dawn of 66th Independence Day of our nation was marked on Western Railway with flag hoisting by Shri Mahesh Kumar, General Manager, Western Railway. He laid special emphasis on provision of more passenger amenities, safety and infrastructural development. Shri Mahesh Kumar said that it is a matter of immense pride that Western Railway received Railway Board's Prestigious Pt. Govind Vallabh Pant Shield for overall efficiency and best Zonal Railway for 2nd time in a row, which is a major achievement. Western Railway has also bagged Railway Board's prestigious Safety Shield and Commercial Shield for excellent performance during 2011-12.Western Railway created history when final phase of DC to AC conversion from Vile Parle to Churchgate on Mumbai Suburban section was successfully completed on 5th Feb.2012. The conversion of Churchgate – Borivali section to AC traction has integrated this section with rest of the country by enabling seamless connectivity. Due to the conversion, about 100 Main Line trains have been speeded up, reducing the journey time. Shri Kumar announced that WR plans to convert all its (196) 9-car suburban services to 12-car services by the end of this financial year.Shri Mahesh Kumar said that Western Railway has been able to continue to achieve sustained outstanding performance in freight and coaching earnings during this financial year.It isthefirsttimethatWRhas succeeded in achieving the originating earnings of over 10,000 crore during 2011-12. He congratulated the staff and the officers and urged them to keep up this momentum.·The originating freight earnings upto July 2012 were approx. Rs.2751 crore, thus registering an increase of 24 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
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Passenger earnings for the same period have gone up by 14 percent to approx. Rs.1057 crore.
·Out of 22 budget announced new Mail/Express trains, 11 pairs of new Mail/Express trains have already been introduced.
·Destinations of 2 pairs of trains have been extended and frequency of 2 trains increased.
·915 Holiday Special trains have been run from April to July, 2012 for the convenience of passengers.
·5738 additional coaches were attached to various trains on temporary/day-to-day basis which is 29 percent more than the corresponding period of last year.
·For suburban section, about 35 new services are proposed to be introduced during the current financial year.
Shri Kumar said that Western Railway gives due importance to upgrade its infrastructure for building a better tomorrow and keep pace with the progress of the country.
·Work of extension of platforms at Mumbai Central to accommodate 24 coach trains has been completed.
·In order to cater to the increased number of services and to ensure better maintenance of long distance trains, the work of providing additional pit lines at Mumbai Central and Bandra Terminus have also been completed along with other traffic facility works on Western Railway.
·Gauge conversion of Rajpipla – Ankleshwar section has been completed and opened for goods traffic.
·Doubling work of Parbati – Baktal section and Gandhidham – Kandla Port has also been completed.
·In order to enhance line capacity, 48 Route Km of Automatic Signalling has been provided on Dahanu Road – Surat – Vadodara section. With this, the entire Mumbai – Ahmedabad section of 496 Route Kms is now provided with Automatic Signalling which is the longest section of automatic signaling on Indian Railways.
·Route Relay Interlocking with yard remodeling has been commissioned at Viramgam, Surat, Gandhidham, Bharuch, Surendranagar and Bangrod.

He further added that, Western Railway is striving hard, and is committed to provide, increase and improve amenities and facilities for its passengers.
·During the current financial year, two non-railhead PRSs have been commissioned, taking the total number of Passenger Reservation Centres to 116 on Western Railway.
·UTS has been commissioned at 29 locations while UTS-cum-PRS has been installed at 10 new locations during this year.
·68 new ATVMs have been commissioned during the current financial year, taking the total number of ATVMs to 183 on the suburban section.
·Facility of computerized booking of retiring rooms is now available at Mumbai Central, Bandra Terminus, Vadodara, Rajkot and Ahmedabad.
·New AC & non-AC retiring rooms and a dormitory have been commissioned at Vapi station.
·For easy and convenient movement of differently abled and senior citizens, a lift has been commissioned at Rajkot station.
·To provide comfort and convenience to the passengers, 32 escalators are planned to be installed at various stations of Western Railway.
·Commissioning of three Food Plazas at Vadodara, Andheri and Indore is under process.
·Western Railway has provided On Board House Keeping Services in 32 trains (68 rakes) while enroute cleaning of trains under the Clean Train Station Scheme is being done at Ahmedabad and Ratlam stations.

Shri Kumar said that, Western Railway has been the pioneer of many initiatives in the past. Western Railwaylaunched another initiative, along with a major cable TV network in Mumbai for scrolling of information regarding its special trains, extra coaches, availability of berths etc. Similarly, local news channels of Gujarat also telecast such rail related information in seven districts viz. Rajkot, Jamnagar, Junagarh, Dwarka, Surendranagar, Bhavnagar and Amreli. During the peak season, Western Railway started providing information of its tentative plan to attach extra coaches in regular Mail/Express trains for the next one to three days in advance on its website.

Safety has always been the main focus of Western Railway. Indian Railways has made an ambitious plan of eliminating all Unmanned Level Crossings by 2015. Accordingly, with a view to provide safer rail and road traffic, Western Railway has prepared a road map to undertake the work of constructing Road Over Bridges and Road Under Bridges/Limited Height Subways in lieu of Level Crossings on a large scale. To achieve this, 15 Road Over Bridges and Road Under Bridges are planned to be completed by March, 2013. Western Railway is the only railway to have completed the work of providing Vigilance Control Device in all of its Electric as well as Diesel locomotives to improve safety.

Shri Kumar spoke about WR's steps on becoming self sufficient in supplying clean linen from its inhouse laundries. Mechanised Laundries are presently functional at Indore and Junagadh and are expected to be functional at Surat and Ahmedabad soon. New laundries have also been sanctioned for Mumbai Central and Bandra Terminus.As a result of various drives of RPF, almost one lakh persons were apprehended under various sections of Railways Act and about Rs.1.8 crore realised as fine. Vigilance department has also realized Rs.1.7 crore from 499 checks.To keep vigil, 655 CCTV cameras are installed at 41 stations of Western Railway. 650 more CCTV cameras for 37 stations are under process for further strengthening the security through "Integrated Security System".It is a matter of great pride that Western Railway's sportsmen Renjith Maheshwary, Athlete and Narsingh Yadav, Wrestler represented India in the London Olympics.Shri Kumar said that we should renew our determination to serve the country and its people with highest degree of sincerity and responsibility and rededicate ourselves to continue to work with complete dedication in order to attain higher level of service and performance in spite of challenges.