MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) & (b) Yes, Madam. On an average, about 1600 long distance Mail/Express trains terminate per day across Indian Railways. Loss of punctuality of some of these trains, including those terminating at Ranchi, has generated complaints. As a matter of fact, punctuality performance of Mail/Express trains traversing through quadrilateral routes such as Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai have been adversely impacted as these sectors are facing severe capacity constraint due to saturated line capacity. In particular, trains traversing through Ghaziabad- Allhabad – Mughalsarai sector, which is the most critical section connecting northern part of the country with the rest of India have not been able to maintain satisfactory level of punctuality performance as the line capacity of this sector is oversaturated (150% or above). These routes are also intensively being used for carrying freight traffic including raw materials, coal for power generation needs, petroleum products, foodgrains for our Public Distribution System (PDS) network, fertilizer for the agricultural sector, iron and steel, import-export oriented container traffic from mainland to the ports and vice versa etc. Other than capacity constraints, the factors responsible for poor punctuality performance of some of these trains are beyond Railway’s control like public agitation and other law and order problem in extremism affected areas, natural calamities, electricity grid failures, bad weather, heavy road traffic at level crossing gates, etc. In addition to the above, asset failures, maintenance blocks and blocks for execution of capacity enhancement works, etc. have also contributed towards loss of punctuality of trains. Punctuality performance for the year 2014-15 was 79%. About 20% of the total trains lost during 2014-15 were on account of factors beyond railway’s control as mentioned above while about 32% trains lost due to capacity constraints.
(c) Connectivity of data logger for Control Office Application with logic of train Arrival /departure/passing through information has been carried out at 31 identified terminal stations/interchange points.
(d) No, Madam. Indian Railways have a computer based Integrated Coaching Monitoring System (ICMS) for live monitoring and operations of train on round- the -clock basis.
(e) The following steps have already been initiated by the Railways:
Minimizing avoidable delays by sensitizing staff involved in train operations at all levels, controlling asset failures by stressing on preventive maintenance, reducing the time of failure rectifications, close monitoring of capacity enhancement/infrastructural works including Dedicated Freight Corridor, reducing alarm chain pulling (ACP) by deployment of Railway Protection Force staff on Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP) prone routes are some of the concrete steps envisaged which will go a long way in ensuring timely arrival and departure of trains.
