NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday awarded 100 railway employees with the prestigious ‘Ati Vishisht Rail Seva Puraskar’ (AVRSP). Speaking at the ceremony after conferring the awards, he said transformation work is going on at full pace in the Railways under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi.
“More electrification has been done in 9.5 years than in the past 40 years. The big picture behind this is when in 2015 the PM merged the Railways budget with general budget. It removed all financial hindrances for the railways. Lack of investment, which was the biggest problem for Railways, is now a thing of the past,” the Union minister said.
He asserted that people’s expectations with the Railways are being fulfilled now. Quoting the Prime Minister, he said that this is the golden period of Railways and the people are the strength behind this.“This commitment of all railway employees makes everyone feel proud that we are all doing this for our nation. Railway infrastructure is being developed at record speed and scale. Several new things are happening which is helping achieve a strategic goal,” he said.
Speaking about the massive potential savings in logistics costs, Vaishnaw said, “Such transportation, if done by road, involves higher costs along with fuel cost. As per an estimate, there will be 3000 million tonnes of new cargo, and if Railways gets half of it, then it will potentially save 16,000 crore litre of fuel and Rs 1,28,000 crore will be saved through this which will be a big saving for the nation.”