RailEnquiry

BANGALORE : 
South Western Railways (SWR) is planning to take up construction of subways and to close major level crossings this financial year for smooth rail traffic. Despite being one of the smaller zones, SWR has taken this major step to enhance safety.“To improve railway safety, we have taken up construction of 85 subways and plan to close 82 level crossings this year,” Ashok Kumar Mital, General Manager, SWR, told Business Line.“So far 14 subways have been completed and 21 level crossings have been closed till July-end,” he added.Mital added that during 2012-13, SWR constructed 75 subways in lieu of level crossings and closed 91 level crossings and bagged Railway Board’s Shield for ‘Level Crossings and Road Over Bridges (ROBs)/ Road Under Bridges (RUBs) works.’Talking about SWR’s performance, Mital said, “SWR has been moving ahead on a path of high growth. In the first-four months of the current year 2013-14, we have carried 10.37 million tonnes of freight and 64.28 million originating passengers with the gross earnings of Rs 1,434.04 crores.”

For the whole year, SWR last financial year (2012-13), loaded 33.52 million tonnes of freight and carried 193 millions of originating passengers with the gross earnings of Rs 4,185 crore. During the current year, 47 km of new railway line, 43 km of track doubling are targeted for completion.

“During April to July this year there were no consequential train accidents due to continued emphasis on safety activities. This Railway is firmly committed to ‘zero tolerance’ for any violation of safety norm at any level. Focus is given on full-proof functioning of safety systems through frequent inspections and counselling of staff,” Mital said.

According to Mital, for easy availability of tickets, unreserved ticketing system (UTS) has been extended to cover 244 stations and reserved tickets can be obtained at 152 locations. In addition to this, 58 of Jansadharan Ticket Booking Sevak (JTBS) have been appointed to issue unreserved tickets.