VISAKHAPATNAM: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) is all set to focus on cleanliness and catering at the railway stations and in trains. In a move to improve the services amidst complaints from passengers, the officials are mulling over Railways itself handling the laundry services but giving catering services to bidders on contract.
ECoR general manager Rajiv Vishnoi who was here to inaugurate the exhibition on 160 years of Indian Railways here Friday, said that the railways was receiving complaints about the catering services being offered by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). “We are contemplating to delegate the services on contract basis to improve the food quality and services,” he said. Similarly, there are complaints about the bedlinen being supplied in AC coaches which are currently being handled by contractors and the ECoR is planning to open its own laundry service at Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam.
Taking serious view of the recent train accident in Medak district of Telangana, the ECoR officials are gearing up to solve the issues pertaining to the unmanned railway level-crossings in the zone. They took a decision to either close or deploy personnel at 40 of the 570 unmanned railway crossings in the zone over the next one month. The remaining 530 unmanned level-crossings will be either closed or manned in phases over the next 10 years.
He urged people to be cautious while crossing the tracks and gave the slogan: ‘Let the train pass first’.
Waltair DRM Anil Kumar said that they had already deployed guards at the 18 unmanned railway gates in the division and said that efforts were on to sort the issues at the remaining gates shortly. The railways will also increase the number of bio-toilets at Visakhapatnam, he added.
Swimming Pool Opened Near Rly Stadium
East Coast Railway (ECoR) general manager Rajiv Vishnoi inaugurated a swimming pool constructed by the Waltair Railway division at railway ground here Friday. The construction works were taken up in the site adjacent to the railway stadium after the ECoR sanctioned a 50x25m international standard sized swimming pool.
DRM (Waltair division) Anil Kumar, senior divisional (Commercial manager), sports officer (Waltair division) M Yelvender Yadav, ECoRWWO president Shalini Vishnoi, Waltair division president Anju Anil Kumar, assistant sports officer Ch Vishnu Murthy and additional assistant sport officer KK Khadanga were present.