Rail Analysis India May Digital Edition 2018 | Page 30

30 | Article News of the Month Ministry of Railways organizes a one day workshop ‘Mission Raftar’ aimed at raising the average speed of freight trains and coaching trains Ministry of Railways conducted a one day workshop “Mission Raftaar” aimed at raising the average speed of freight trains and coaching trains in New Delhi. The workshop was inaugurated by Shri Rajen Gohain, Minister of State for Railways & Shri Ashwani Lohani, Chairman,Railway Board. All the members of Railway Board along with General Managers of Zonal Railways & Senior Railway officers were present on the occasion. On this occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways & Coal said, “This workshop is an exercise with the top management of Indian Railways to brainstorm about the increase in speed of freight and passenger trains. Also, host of issues ranging from punctuality, rolling stock, removing bottlenecks in terms of traffic, elimination of Unmanned Level crossings were discussed. Indian Railways is enthusiastically taking up all the issues with the determination to find the solution in a time bound manner.” He also stated that coal loading was highest i.e. 555 MT in 2017-18. In last three months, 18.7% increase is witnessed in coal loading. Ministry of Railways & Coal is coordinating well so as to ensure there is no shortage of coal in power plants. He added that demand for coal has also witnessed an increase due to less imports. He complimented Coal India Limited for increasing supply of coal in last three months. Earlier in the day, in the inaugural remarks, Shri Rajen Gohain, Minister of State for Railways said, “Indian Railways has been emphasizing on capacity building and lot of work has been done, now the time has come to address the bottlenecks so the speeds of trains can be increased. Railway officials have the best expertise to come up with solutions to implement Mission Raftar.” Cabinet Apprised of MoU Between India & France on Technical Cooperation in The Field of Railways The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Indian Railways (IR) and SNCF Mobilites (a company owned by France) on technical cooperation in the field of railways. The MoU was signed on March 10 during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India. More Information: • • • www.railanalysis.com It provide a platform for the Indian Railways to interact and share the latest developments & knowledge in the railway sector. The MoU facilitates the exchange of technical experts, reports & technical documents, training & seminars and workshops focusing on specific technology areas and other interactions for knowledge sharing. It will also provide a framework of cooperation for a focused approach in following key area- 1. High speed & semi-high speed rail 2. Station renovation and operations • 3. Modernisation of current operations & infrastructure 4. Suburban trains The Ministry of Railways has signed MoUs for technical cooperation in the railway sector with various foreign governments & national railways corporations. www.railanalysis.com