The South Central Railway (SCR) has bagged five national performance efficiency shields for 2021. The shields will be presented by Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to SCR general manager (in-charge) Arun Kumar Jain and principal heads of departments at Rail Auditorium, Bhubaneswar on May 28.
Security, comprehensive healthcare (jointly with West Central Railway), civil engineering (jointly with Western and Central Railways), stores (jointly with Western Railways) and civil engineering construction (jointly with North Western Railways) are the five areas the SCR has been recognised for.
Arun Kumar Jain said that to enhance security for passengers in the SCR jurisdiction, CCTV cameras were installed at 58 railway stations across the zone in the financial year 2021-22. Several initiatives were undertaken to ensure the secure journey of women and children. Special care was ensured in the rescue and rehabilitation of missing children. In addition, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) kept constant surveillance at major railway stations to ensure passengers’ safety, he said.
To enhance the health and medical facilities of the staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, the SCR took up several proactive steps, he said. Covid care centres were set up at five hospitals across the zone. Simultaneously, vaccination drives were taken up on a massive scale to protect the staff against the adverse impact of Covid. In addition, oxygen plants were set up at several railway hospitals across the zone. The zone is also leading in the implementation of hospital management information system (HMIS), he said.
The civil engineering shield was jointly bagged by the SCR, Western Railway and Central Railway for enhanced safety in operations. Notable among them have been the elimination of manned level crossings (71 in 2021-22), rehabilitation of bridges and maintenance of the railway tracks, he said.
The stores shield, jointly bagged by the SCR and Western Railways, is for making efforts to achieve scrap-free status. This is the eleventh consecutive time that SCR won the efficiency shield in material management. The zone has been implementing a ‘mission zero scrap’ project.
The CSR has been giving prime importance to infrastructure addition to its rail network. The zone in 2021-22 added 344 km rail network. This includes 83 Km of new lines, 197 Kms of double lines and 64 km of third lines, he said.
