PROCEEDINGS OF GENERAL MANAGERS’ CONFERENCE HELD ON 17TH MARCH 2010

1.0 Address by Hon’ble MR

1.1 Indian Railway is not getting positive publicity despite lot of good works being done in various fields. Improved IR website, designed professionally, is necessary to create a good image of Railways and must be set up without any further delay. CPROs also should work more proactively to communicate the good work being done to media, rather than merely giving information about Railways’ failures.

1.2 There is a need for better coordination and communication between different departments in Railways. GMs, AGMs, DRMs and ADRMs must ensure proper coordination at all levels. Communication also needs to be improved so that decisions taken at Board level also reach the grass root.

1.3 Railway employees and their family members are carrying out the mammoth task of running 17000 trains every day despite huge shortage of employees. Board must fill all the vacancies in Group “C” and Group “D” including vacancies in Gangmen, RPF, Sports quota, Handicapped quota, SC/ST quota, by July this year. 1000 available Act Apprentices should also be absorbed in the railways.

1.4 Tendering process should be speeded up. This is possible only if Tender schedules are prepared properly without any mistakes. Frequent changes in the tender specifications after issue of tender notice only delays the whole process. Railway is being very adversely criticized for not spending the allotted money, due to delay in finalization of tenders. Tender schedules for works to be carried out, as per budget commitments should be kept ready, so that tenders can be floated as soon as budget is passed. Performance of officers in this regard need to be monitored.

1.5 All amounts which have been allotted in the Budget for works programmes and projects need to spent fully and on an urgent basis. FC shall regularly monitor the expenses status and draw attention of the full Board.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 1.6 Separate Officers must be nominated by Zonal railways for specific works like beautification of stations, cleanliness, and Safety and DRMs be spared for development works and train operations.

1.7 The clearance for Automobile Hub programme by South Eastern railway and MT within 100 days deserves to be complimented. This needs to be done by other railways also. Nine more hubs at Chennai, Ernakulam, Hyderabad, Jalpaiguri, Guwahati, Orissa, Nasik etc have to be established soon which will help in increasing the number of cars being transported from 5000 to 16000 giving an additional earning of Rs 1000 crore to Railways. Financial powers of GMs and DRMs for construction works and also for ROB or Unmanned LCs have been increased to speed up the completion of project works.

1.8 All commitments made in this year’s budget that is 1000 km of new line, 800 km of Gauge Conversion, 700 km of Doubling and also the other announcements including earlier announcements should be met. Project wise performance of last year must also be evaluated.

1.9 New line connectivities to Ports, Pilgrim & Tourist Centres need to be done expeditiously. The present survey system with its ROR system does not capture the socially desirable projects and this needs a through revisit.

1.10 Following guidelines need to be followed for land acquisition for special railway projects where land acquisition is necessary :

• There will be no forceful acquisition of land. • In case of disputes negotiations with the landowners will be resorted to

• Railways will resort to amicable settlement with the owner.

• Railways will go nearest to the railway station to reduce the requirement for land acquisition.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010

• Congested areas be avoided for new lines, DFC etc. • Railways can also consider giving employment to one family member.

1.11 Corruption especially at high places can not be tolerated. There is a need to streamline Stores Tendering process and Scrap Auction process where corruption is rampant. GMs must take to task people who are indulging in malpractices by getting surprise visits and increased vigilance checks done in these areas. Complaints of corruption against senior officers are a matter of grave concern and adversely affects the image of railways. Vigilance organization must also carry out checks wherever projects are going on.

1.12 Complaints are also being received that people with vested interests are monopolising rakes that are in short supply to their advantage. This needs to be curbed. There is a need to have a ‘Tatkal’ website for freight system.

1.13 Money on Adarsh Stations must to be spent wisely. Rs.1 crore has not been provided for painting alone but for bringing complete improvement in the station premises. Drinking water is an important aspect and this must be ensured at all station in adequate amounts. GMs must take stock of the situation. Vigilance must also carry out checks to ensure that the money is being utilised properly for works on Adarsh stations.

1.14 Derailments are a cause of worry. Derailments lead to loss of precious human life which can not be accepted. Even if one life is lost it is serious. Accidents at unmanned LC gates is also a serious concern. It leads to public agitations and rail rokos. Railway loses lot of revenue on account of blockage of traffic for 8-10 hours in accidents and derailments. Saving accidents will not only save lives but also help railways in earning more. The drivers need to exercise caution while crossing unmanned LC. Out of 24000 unmanned LCs, 17000 are still left. This year 4000 have been taken up for manning out of them. Within 4

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 years all LCs will be manned. In the projects of new line, doubling etc. the provision must be kept for under pass on unmanned LCs, and ROBs so that there is no need to do it separately later. Derailments are taking place mainly due to engineering failures, hence these needs to be controlled. Accidents at UMLCs have to decrease and we definitely have to be more cautious on this.

1.15 GMs must make unannounced surprise visit at the track work sites at least once in a fortnight to know the ground reality by meeting the gangmen and staff at grass root level. Suburban section from where number of complaints originate also need to be visited.

1.16 DRMs are expected to have good multi-disciplinary experience and should therefore be posted as Chief Safety officer for two years after completing their tenure as DRM.

1.17 GMs must identify the places suitable for various coach factories, wagon factories, medical colleges, hospitals, diagnostic centers, training centers etc. announced in the budget. Except for Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra railway land is available at all other places where projects have been announced. GMs of ECoR, SCR, and WR must approach the Chief Ministers for land at these places.

1.18 The railway land can be protected from encroachment by encouraging Industry to invest in Railways for sidings, coal mines & port connectivity and the connectivity with other important areas for an economic share. Viability of projects in such cases needs to be seen over long term and not short term considering the future growth scenario of the country.

1.19 The work of Rae Bareli Factory should immediately be started and must be completed within one year by mechanical. Work at Kanchrapara has been entrusted to Electrical. ML should plan for its early completion. It has been decided not to proceed with optical fiber cables any

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 further beyond 33000 Kilometer but to go for Broad Band Project up to the Panchayat level as per the advise of Dr. Sam Pitroda. This broad band project will give lot of revenue to Railways.

1.20 Mr Suhel Seth has been requested to prepare a package for advertisement. There is lot of scope for increase in earnings from advertisements. OHE masts located at every 60 meters in 18000 route kilometer of Electrified area can be used for advertisement by suitably colouring it with soothing colours without affecting the operations. Suburban Stations can also be fenced through ads without any cost to railways. This will prevent encroachment also and will also result in beautification and positive publicity to railways.

1.21 Only 1000 important stations out of total 8000 stations on IR have been chosen for improvement and beautification as Adarsh station, MFC and World class stations. Balance 7000 stations can be improved through private parties by permitting them to advertise on station premises according to the existing policy. This will help in improving every station. CRB shall suitably issue guidelines to GMs on this.

1.22 Parties are offering to sponsor the cleaning of the entire station and take away the garbage at no cost to the railways. Initially one section can be given for cleanliness which can be further extended if performance is found satisfactory. MT has received a proposal for cleanliness on 200 trains without any cost to railways in return for advertisement rights on these trains. There is a need to issue policy guidelines in this regard to empower GMs.

1.23 100 days clearance for all proposals for IR (internal clearance) needs to be ensured. A cell has been opened under Secretary Railway Board for accepting proposals from interested parties wanting to do business with the railways. Zones should have some similar arrangement. Railway Board shall specially monitor the PPP proposals.

1.24 The quality of food being served in trains including Rajdhani trains by IRCTC is still not satisfactory. Quality of food can be improved by offsetting the cost of food by

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 giving ads on the cups and plates as is also being done by various airlines for generating extra income.

1.25 Security has to be ensured on trains. As prisoners and convicts are a security hazard, there should be a special arrangement for moving prisoners in isolated cabins. The matter needs to be taken with the respective state govt. and home ministry by DG, MS and GMs as security of Passengers is involved,

1.26 For the welfare of the railway employees’ house for all has been announced. Sports stadium and sports academies have been planned. Cultural promotion Board has also been set up that will promote cultural activities. All this will boost the morale of the railway employees. The talent of our employees, who are also our human capital, must be promoted and utilized in a proper manner for the benefit of the railways.

1.27 There is a need to take up mass contact programmes also. Our Railway women organisations have been doing very good work. They should be associated for mass contact program with the people. They can visit the railways and note down the problems of passengers. The message should go that railway families are trying to sort out the issues of the public. It will go a long way in improving railway’s image.

1.28 Railway has to be a passenger friendly mode of transport. We have to improve our image and create our brand so that people from all over the world prefer to travel by Indian Railways instead of air. There is a need to keep the railway flag flying high.

1.29 Railway is the only department where officers union, employees union and RPF union are together involved in policy decision. All cooperate for improvement of Railways. I congratulate all board members, officials and all the railway family members for the good work being done and convey our new year wishes to all.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 2.0 Address by Hon'ble MSR (A)

2.1 Indian Railways’ VISION 2020 envisages a phenomenal growth in both freight and passenger traffic in line with the economic growth of our country. Our annual growth is likely to touch double digit figures soon. We thus face a very challenging task of providing adequate infrastructure in terms of rail network and rolling stock to cater to this phenomenal growth in demand. All out efforts would thus be required to achieve the same.

2.2 The image of the Railways has largely been satisfactory. We have met the commitments made in the budget in 2009. We now successfully run new Duronto and Yuva trains and some ladies only trains besides large number of other mail and express trains. Our performance on the freight front has been an all time record. During the peak of the foggy weather when roads were devoid of traffic and most flights were indefinitely delayed, we continued to run our services. I complement all of you for the same.

2.3 Railways however continue to draw adverse criticism with regards to cleanliness in trains and on stations. Passenger complaints with regards to maintenance and cleanliness of coaches and clean linen have gone up despite putting in a lot of efforts. The condition of our bedrolls is still quite pathetic. We need to find innovative solutions to the problem and methods of effectively monitoring the work being done by various outside agencies involved in cleanliness work.

2.4 The Railways continue to lose lot of revenue on account of ticket less travel. It is thus necessary that leakage of revenue be arrested. Rigorous ticket checking can help curb ticket less travel and indirectly improve passenger earnings. Increase in ticket checking earning from Rs. 233 crore to Rs. 264 crore till December 2009 indicates that ticket less travel is still rampant. Intensive ticket checking drives in co-ordination with state governments should be taken up with greater zest.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 2.5 We also ignore the menace created by beggars who freely misuse the facilities meant for passengers.

2.6 Punctuality performance directly affects the image of railways. Though there has been an improvement in punctuality as per ICMS figures on most of the Railways, but for certain Railways punctuality is below 60%. I don’t want to mention the Railways whose punctuality ratings are very bad but I expect corrective steps to be taken urgently. It is necessary to reduce equipment failures and control miscreant activities which are major factors in this regard.

2.7 It is also necessary to improve the image of Railways amongst the traveling public. Railwaymen posted at cutting edge levels like TTE, TC, Train Superintendent, Booking clerks, coach attendants, Pantry car staff and traveling safaiwalas etc need to be sensitized. They should be courteous to passengers and other railway customers. Instances of thefts and drugging of passengers is another area we need to look at closely.

2.8 To achieve the envisaged growth in freight loading, it is necessary that special emphasis is paid on project monitoring and completion of projects as per the target. It is a matter of concern that against the target fixed for 250 km new line, 1300 km for gauge conversion and 700 km for doubling, only 85 km of new lines, 1100 km of gauge conversion and 196 km of doubling has been achieved up to Dec. 2009. Against a target of 1000 route km for 2009-2010 only 669 route km has been energized till date. CORE must ensure energization of the balance 331 route kilometer by the end of March 2010. A number of completed assets are yet to be commissioned. For the year 2010-2011 targets have been fixed by the Hon’ble MR for completion of 1000 km of new lines, 800 km of gauge conversion and 700 km of doubling. GMs must evolve a system for ensuring progress of projects as per the intermediate milestones and ensure that these are completed in time.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 2.9 A word on the delays on the tender front-Railways spend a lot of money in calling for tenders. The post tender opening stages are plagued by delays of several kinds. These adversely affect the execution of works, push up the costs and drive away good agencies from us. Responsibility must be fixed on all those who flout the Railway Board’s prescribed target dates for finalisation of tenders.

2.10 Similarly we should know how many days it takes for replies to go from the Railway Board to Zonal Railways. I am given to understand that queries and clarifications sought by Zonal Railways are replied only after a few reminders. There should be a system to monitor these delays.

2.11 Our 14 lakh employees play a major role in improving the performance of Railways. Welfare of the staff and their families is thus very important. A thrust needs to be given under the corporate welfare plan for improvement of staff quarters and colonies. Hon’ble MR has announced a new scheme of “House for all” in the budget for providing residences to all railway employees in the next ten years. Numbers of welfare measures have also been planned through signing if MOU with Ministry of Health and Ministry of HRD for setting up of hospitals and educational institutions on surplus railway land. To care for our 80,000 women employees, Hon’ble MR has also proposed to set up 50 crèches and 20 hostels for children of railway employees. These need to be pursued in right earnest.

2.12 I am sure that you will make all efforts for the progress of Railways in the coming years and take all steps to carry our honoured customers in a safe and secure manner with comfort.

3.0 Address by Hon'ble MSR (M)

3.1 Indian Railways is striving to attain a state of “availability on demand” in freight, passenger and parcel services by 2020 as per VISION 2020 document. By 2020 originating freight traffic is expected to grow from the current level of

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 890 MTs to 2165 MT and Passenger traffic is expected to increase from 8200 Million to 15180 Million. It is thus necessary that Indian railways’ give high priority to creating necessary infrastructure to cater to this future demand.

3.2 I congratulate the General Managers for achieving freight loading of 803.50 million tones till February, which is equal to the target and 6.95% more than last year. I am quite sure that Railways will be able to achieve the revised loading target of 890 MT. The freight loading target for the year 2010-11 has been fixed at 944 MT. Demand exists across all sectors of the economy and conservative estimate show that we have a potential for loading approximately 965 MT. For achieving full potential of 965 MT, improvements have to be effected in mobility and ensuring availability of running staff.

3.3 Effective drives should be launched at primary maintenance of pantry cars and for making good the deficiencies of equipments for improving the catering services. Fumigation of pantry cars must also be done as per schedule. Check on unauthorised vending is also needed, especially in Central Railway, Northern Railway, East Central Railway and North Eastern railway. The quality of food being served in trains need to be monitored and improved, as railway continues to draw adverse criticism in this regard.

3.4 Safety is of prime importance as accidents results in loss of precious life and attracts very adverse criticism. I am happy to note that there is a reduction in consequential train accidents from 165 last year to 144 this year up to Feb2010 i.e. reduction by 12.72%. The trend needs to be sustained over next year also. The performance of CR, NR and NFR is not satisfactory and needs to be improved.

3.5 Increase in accidents at unmanned level crossings on NR and SER is also a matter of concern. The accidents at unmanned LCs are avoidable. Hon’ble MR has already assured in the budget speech that all 17000 unmanned level crossings will be manned in the next 5 years.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Railways will thus have to plan massive manning of LC gates in the coming years. 4000 LCs have already been sanctioned for manning out of these 17000. Targets for manning must be adhered to. Accidents at unmanned level crossings constitute a major portion of total accidents hence vigorous publicity campaign both in print and visual media needs to be launched to educate road users.

3.6 Works of replacement of 2368 LC gates with ROBs/RUBS/Limited height subways also need to be completed on priority. The progress of these works have not been satisfactory so far on most of the railways except Northern Railway and close co-ordination with the state governments, NHAI etc. needs to be ensured to expedite the pending works. It is in the Railways interest to complete such works at the earliest so that concerned level crossings can be closed.

3.7 We are grateful to our Hon’ble MR for introducing Sanskriti Express, Bhart tirth trains, Common wealth special trains and trains like Janmabhumi and unreserved Karmabhumi train. This will create lot of goodwill as there is wide appreciation from all quarters.

3.8 We must pay due attention for maintaining highest standards of cleanliness and hygienic environment on station premises and in our trains through using modern technology, motivated manpower and extensive checks. Suitable system must be developed for reporting compliance on cleanliness issues. Effective pest and rodent control measures must be put in place in coaches as well as station premises.

3.9 Cases of signal passing at danger need to be completely curbed. GMs should pay special attention to quality inspections and night inspections so that complacency does not set in.

3.10 Security of passenger is a prime concern. Integrated security system has been sanctioned for 202 stations. In view of the perceived security threats in railway premises,

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 General Managers should take prompt action in getting these works completed in a time bound manner. These works are necessary to strengthen surveillance mechanism over sensitive and vulnerable stations. Issues pertaining to security of women passengers need to be specifically addressed. Hon’ble MR has announced raising of 12 women RPF companies to be named as “Mahila Vahini” in the budget for providing protection to lady passengers.

3.11 Railway workshops should be reorganised to work on business lines to improve overall efficiency and reduction in unit costs of workshop.

3.12 It should be ensured that all goods shed have the facility of 24 hour loading/unloading. New goods sheds be opened and all basic facilities like proper platform for loading/unloading, shelter for stacking of bagged consignments, provision of traders room, coolie shelter, proper lighting arrangements to facilitate loading/unloading during night hours. This will go a long way in reducing complaints related to goods traffic.

3.13 Ministry of railways have signed an MOU with Ministry of Health and family welfare for developing health care infrastructure along the railway network across the country. The railway has already carried out the preliminary identification of the sites for these facilities. The construction in time bound manner of these facilities will go a long way in providing better medical and educational facilities to railway staff. The condition of Railway colonies need to be improved. Funds allotted for improving staff quarters and staff amenities should be properly utilised.

3.14 I am sure that with the efforts being made by all Railwaymen, railways will surpass all the targets set for 2009-2010 and scale new heights in 2010-2011.

3.15 I would request the officers to recall my address during the last General Manager’s conference. I had made certain observations with regards to alleged discrepancies in some

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 circulars issued by the department and some legal issues which were brought to my notice by some of the Members of Parliament. Hon’ble MR was also kind enough to endorse my views and had my speech circulated to all of you. I would request the officers to review the points raised in the meetings and put up the same before the Hon’ble MR for her perusal and consideration, which will help us to remove anomalies if any.

4.0 Address by CRB

4.1 It is heartening to note that despite the economic slowdown and the burden of Pay Commission, Railways have been able to generate surplus even after paying the dividend and contributing to the DRF and DF. There is a need to further improve the operating ratio which has taken a beating during the last two years. This is possible only by increasing the earnings and reducing the expenditure. GMs’ thus need to focus on these two issues. 4.2 Railways’ is being repeatedly criticized for not completing the sanctioned works in time and works keep on dragging for many years. Hon’ble MR has also expressed her concern in this regard. Though the normal excuse is non availability of funds and government procedures, but even where funds is not a constraint for example Road Safety works, works are not getting completed. Funds sanctioned must be spent. This needs to be taken as a challenge. 4.3 It is heartening that railways have been able to fulfill most of the commitments which were made in the budget and I am sure that whatever is left will be completed during the balance period. 4.4 Economic growth is back with more vengeance. Railways has already started feeling the shortage of wagons and ways and means have to be found for meeting the demand. There is lot of pressure for the movement of fertilizers, and foodgrains. Optimum use of the wagons has to be made. Efforts are being made to induct more wagons into the system.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 4.5 I congratulate all the GMs for surpassing the freight loading targets during the current year. The target for 2010-2011 has been fixed at 944 million tonnes and with the demand potential even 965 MT is achievable. We must aim for that from the very beginning. 4.6 Safety 4.6.1 Safety continues to remain a serious concern especially the accidents at level crossing gates. There is an increase in accidents on CR, ECR, NR, NFR, SER and WR. The cases of SPAD are high and number of collisions have taken place due to negligence of drivers who need to be counseled. Cases of Fire in Trains on account of electrical failures also need to be controlled.

4.6.2 Derailments constitute 47% of total consequential train accidents. Out of these, 40% are due to track defects. Track maintenance in suburban sections is a matter of concern and needs to be improved.

4.6.3 Indian Railway was able to spend only Rs. 554 crores till January, 2010 against an outlay of Rs. 1700 cr. under Plan Head 29 and 30. Only 83 ROBs/RUBs against a target of 137 and only 77 Nos. Limited Height Subways against a target of 137 have been completed till January, 2010.

4.6.4 Hon’ble MR has given highest priority to manning of all unmanned LC gates. 4000 LC Gates have been sanctioned for manning so far. The progress this year has not been satisfactory so far as against a target of 1000 LC Gates to be manned this year, only 225 have been completed.

4.6.5 Safety measures to be adopted 4.6.6 Public awareness campaigns through SMS and social campaigns should be launched to educate Road users. In this regard, vigorous publicity through advertisements in popular TV channels in English, Hindi and regional languages also needs to be carried out.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 4.6.7 Visibility of color light signaling needs to be improved. 4.6.8 Special drives should be launched for counseling and refresher training of Safety category staff with review of training modules.

4.6.9 Periodical Safety drives and surprise inspections also need to be carried out.

4.6.10 Implementation of technological aids like ACD, TPWS, AWS, VCD should be taken up to reduce human dependence for safety

4.7 Freight 4.7.1 The freight loading target for the year 2010-11 has been fixed at 944 MT. Demand exists across all sectors of economy and conservative estimates show that there is potential for loading approximately 965 MT. For achieving full potential of 965 MT, mobility needs to be improved.

4.7.2 25 T axle load operations should be planned especially on iron ore routes. About 10.5 MT of additional traffic can be moved within same resources that will generate earnings of approx. Rs. 652 crores.

4.7.3 Crew management has to be accorded highest priority for achieving freight targets on Indian Railway. Crew Management systems should be utilized for improving availability and preventing misuse of crew.

4.7.4 Terminal detentions should be reduced. Wagon and Locomotive availability should be improved by rationalizing maintenance practices. Adequate infrastructure such as full length lines, electrification and connectivity needs to be provided in ports to meet movement of imported coal.

4.8 Financial Performance 4.8.1 The financial position of railways has been seriously affected due to unprecedented anticipated impact of 6th Pay Commission. The total earnings to end of February

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 2010 at Rs. 77315 crore is less than the target by Rs. 1031 crore although it is 9.34% more than last year. Reduced earnings has affected the internal resource generation of the railways. Additional avenues of earnings need to be explored and a drive be launched to realize the outstanding dues. The economy and austerity drive must continue and all instructions to achieve savings be strictly enforced.

4.8.2 Target for gross traffic receipts for the year 2010-11 has been fixed at Rs. 94765 crore which must be achieved. Initiatives should be taken to augment loading and pace of earnings in both freight and passengers segment. There is lot of scope for increasing earnings through sale of scrap, commercial publicity and commercial utilization of land.

4.8.3 Total goods earning up to February 2010 is Rs 52313.46 crore which is Rs. 198.81crore less than the target. Railways that have fallen short of the target are CR, ER, NER, NFR, SR, SCR, SER, SECR, SWR and WR. There is negative growth in freight earnings on NER, SR and SWR.

4.8.4 The passenger earnings to end of February 2010 at Rs. 21024 crore are short of proportionate target by Rs. 678 crore reflecting a growth of 5.8% over corresponding period of last year as against 9.7% envisaged in the Revised Estimates, 2009-10. All the railways have fallen short of the proportionate target except NCR and Metro/Kolkata.

4.8.5 The other coaching earnings to end of February 2010 at Rs. 1997 crore are short of the proportionate target by Rs 298 crore, shortfall prevailing on all the railways except SCR. WCR registered a negative growth over corresponding period last year.

4.8.6 The overall sundry earnings to end of February 2010 at Rs. 1981 crore are more than proportionate target by 7.78%. All Zonal Railways except NR, NFR, SR, SCR, SWR,WR and Metro Railways have shown shortfall in sundry other earnings. Railways need to make efforts to maximize

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 earnings from land utilization, advertisement, parking lots etc. so as to achieve the budget target. Special attention should be given to advertisement earning at stations and on trains. Full train advertisements should be given for more trains.

4.9 Action Plan to improve image of Railways 4.9.1 Railways continue to draw adverse criticism with regard to cleanliness in trains and on stations. Passenger complaints regarding maintenance and cleanliness of coaches and clean linen have not shown any decline rather these have gone up despite putting in lot of efforts. Merely giving contracts for mechanized cleaning and On Board House keeping will not suffice. There is need to find innovative solutions to the problem and methods by effectively monitoring the work being done by various outside agencies involved in cleanliness work.

4.9.2 In the last GMs conference, a number of innovative methods were suggested. Railways need to adopt those methods which have been successful on other railways. A lot of improvement in this area is required to bring about a perceptible change in the minds of travelling public and for improving the image of railways.

4.9.3 Quality of food served on trains needs lot of improvement. Effective drives should be launched for quality maintenance and replacement of defective equipments in Pantry cars as condition of Pantry cars is not satisfactory. Unauthorised vending needs to be checked especially on Central Railway, Northern Railway, East Central Railway and Northeast Frontier Railway. Extensive availability of Janta Khana, national and regional cuisines must be ensured.

4.10 Throughput Enhancement Works 4.10.1 Hon’ble MR has given highest priority to creation of infrastructure in this Budget. Target of 1000 Kms of New Lines, 800 Kms of Gauge Conversion and 700 Kms of Doubling has been set. Railways must meticulously plan completion of these works.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 4.10.2 Throughput enhancement works are required to be completed on priority. There is need for proper monitoring of these works. GMs may evolve a system for ensuring progress of projects as per milestones.

4.10.3 Only 669 RKMs have been energized till date against the target of 1000 RKMs during the current year. Progress of works needs to be expedited as balance 331 RKMs need to be energized by 31/3/2010. Zonal railways to facilitate the same by providing adequate traffic blocks, staff and locomotives. RE and zonal railways should use mechanised systems for new RE works and maintenance of existing OHE.

4.11 Important Thrust Areas 4.11.1 Double Decker trains sets which are being introduced should match the best in global trends. Modified Wagon Investment Scheme for high capacity general purpose and special purpose wagons need to be implemented. 4.11.2 Automobile and ancillary hubs at 10 locations need to be set up. 4.11.3 Premium Tatkal Services for parcel and freight movement has to be introduced. 4.11.4 Setting up of state of the art training centres for Loco Pilots, Gangmen etc. at 6 places needs to be taken up. 4.11.5 Kisan Vision Project at 6 locations should be implemented. 4.11.6 Extension of Metro Railway in Kolkata needs to taken up on priority. 4.12 PPP Initiatives 4.12.1 A large number of PPP initiatives viz. World Class Stations, Clean Drinking water bottling plants, Wagon manufacturing units, Other rolling stock units, multi-level Parking complexes have been announced in the budget. Site surveys need to be carried out at the earliest. 4.12.2 Coordination with state and local authorities is necessary for world class stations.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 4.12.3 Matters within the purview of Zonal railways, e.g. private sidings, must be cleared within 100 days through a single window system. 4.13 Important Budget Announcements 4.13.1 50 World Class Stations have to be developed through innovative financing & PPP mode. 10 new World class stations have been announced in this budget. Action should be expedited by the railways in this regard. 4.13.2 Out of 378 Adarsh stations, only 145 stations have been upgraded so far during the current year. Railways must complete the work within stipulated time for remaining stations and on newly announced stations General Managers should personally monitor the progress of provision of requisite amenities at Adarsh stations. 4.13.3 Multi-functional Complexes to be developed by PSUs. GM should ensure early finalization of sites and entrustment of land/air space to RLDA and facilitate removal of encumbrances at the earliest. 4.13.4 SMS updates of reservation status and punctuality of trains to passengers and movement of wagons to freight customers to be provided. 4.13.5 E-ticket based mobile vans for reservation tickets and Ticket centres at district headquarters and village panchayats with support from local government should be introduced. 4.13.6 New trains services viz. Karma Bhoomi Trains, Janma Bhoomi Trains, Matra Bhoomi Trains announced in the Budget must be planned along with other new trains. 4.13.7 RPF needs to be modernized and setting of Integrated Security System must be expedited to strengthen security on Indian Railways. 4.13.8 House for all Railway employees is to be provided by 2020. Opening up of New Kendriya Vidyalayas and Hospitals as announced should be taken up.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 4.13.9 Steps should be taken to introduce Comprehensive Health check up of all Railway employees. 4.13.10 Railways Chal Chikitsalya Yojna announced for the benefit of Railwaymen stationed at gang huts should be implemented at the earliest. 4.13.11 381 nos. diagnostic centres, 88 nos. secondary level hospitals and 42 nos. of tertiary level hospitals are to be set up on surplus railway land. Action should be initiated urgently in this regard. 5.0 Address by FC

5.1 Presently the overall financial position of Indian Railways continues to present a very grim picture. The cumulative total earning till the end of February 2010 is down by 1.32% i.e. 1031 crores lesser than the Budget proportion for the period. Whereas the ordinary working expenses are 1.40% above, which is Rs. 851 crores more than the proportionate budget target for the same period. The cascading impact of the decreased earning and more expenditure has resulted into the net deficit of Rs.1882 crores till the end of Feb.2010 for the IRs. The over all growth rate in earnings has come down to 9.34% as against the average growth rate of 13.3% during previous 5 financial years, where as the ordinary working expenses have shot up to 25.59% over 2008-09. It is appreciated that ZRs have little control over the impact of 6th Pay Commission. But the matter of concern remains, in the failure in exercising effective control on expenditure of other than establishment cost, which has contributed significantly to shooting up the ordinary working expenses. This shows that the directive and austerity measures issued by Railway Board from time to time have not been acted upon seriously by the ZRs.

5.2 The whole scenario has impacted the internal generational capacity of the Railways to a considerable extent. During 2007-08, financing of the Railway plan was met to the extant of 51% by the internal resources, which increased marginally to 52% during the next financial year 2008-09.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 However, during the current year it is likely to drop drastically to 30% and for the next FY 2010-11, the financing from internal resources has been projected to be of the order of 33%.

5.3 With less internal resources to support the plan investments, the Revised Estimate for the Plan Expenditure has been kept at 40284 crores. It is in this context that Projects need to be reviewed very critically so that surplus funds may be diverted to priority works./areas. A disturbing trend has been the tendency to incur expenditure more than the allocation, over the ZRs. It is requested that GMs should take personal responsibility for the excess expenditure incurred, which is likely to be reviewed very seriously by the Board.

5.4 If the trend of spending more and earning less continues, not only the internal generation of funds suffer but there is a very serious threat of Railways defaulting on the dividend payment liability, which all of us would like collectively to avoid and not find ourselves in. We have already scraped the bottom of the barrel and the fund balances have all been utilized. So there are no savings to meet shortfall in internal generation targets. The ZRs which have over shot their allocations under revenue expenditure need to be cautioned. Excess will not necessarily need regularization through additional allotments of Rs.2600 crores in the Final Grant. This would be suitably distributed amongst different ZRs through FG. I would request GMs to personally monitor the overall Revenue and Plan Expenditure to the end of March 2010 so that there are no excesses over the allotments given to the ZRs unless expressly authorized by the Railway Board. No additional financial commitment should be made over and above the allocations. The excess expenditure can have serious consequence for the IR, which I am sure all of us would collectively like to avoid.

5.5 Railways have been focusing on increase in the loading. However, NTKM and average earnings per NTKM are better parameters to measure the growth in freight earnings, since these parameters take into account

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 tonnage, lead as well as commodity-mix. Vis-à-vis last year, upto the end of Feb 2010, loading has increased by 6.95% , and earnings by 9.68% and NTKM by 9.02%. The average earning per NTKM has fallen by 0.24%. GMs are requested to review and monitor the product mix and the lead of traffic to improve the overall productivity.

5.6 Hon’ble MR has stressed right in the beginning of the Financial Year that Railways must fully realise the outstanding dues from the outside parties. Despite these instructions, an amount of 1500 crores is yet to be realised as on date, based on the billings made so far. The highest outstanding is presently on the NR. Since the Financial Year is very shortly coming to the end, I would request all GMs to review these outstanding and pursue their realization.

5.7 As far as the projections for the financial year 2010-11 are concerned, we have budgeted for earnings of Rs.94,565 crores, which is 7% over 2009-10 and should be possible to achieve. The ordinary working expenses’ is expected to be around 65000 crores. With the pension liabilities of 14500 crores and DRF contribution at 7600 crores, the total working expenses is a staggering sum of 87100 crores. With the above projections, the operating ratio is targeted to be 92.3%. This would be possible only if the momentum under the Earnings is kept up; Expenditures are regulated within the limit. Hence control over the working expenditure would necessarily have to be stepped up. I would appreciate an action plan to be forwarded by GMs in consultation with their FA&CAOs.

5.8 The annual Plan Outlay for the year 2010-11 has been proposed at Rs.41, 426 crores which is about Rs. 681 crores more than 2009-10 (BE). Of this about Rs. 7500 crores is on new lines, doubling and gauge conversions and the progress in commissioning of these projects need to be monitored at the highest level particularly for doublings and gauge conversions which would help us boost the earnings. The throw forward commitments under these three Plan Heads are in the Order of 88,000 crores.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 5.9 Preparation of abstract estimates without sufficient details have resulted in exorbitant cost being reflected in the detailed and Revised Estimates requiring regularization, which is an area of serious concern.

5.10 Another issue of concern is the delay in the finalization of the Action Taken Notes on Draft Paras, and Provisional Paras which has consistently invited adverse criticism by the PAC. CRB has been writing to all GMs on this issue and a positive response from all GMs is desired.

5.11 For the current year the realization of the outstanding under the traffic suspense have been kept at a high level of 200 crores. We would request all GMs to pursue it and ensure its realization.

5.12 To conclude in the final analysis the performance of the Organisation would be just at the bottom line and the numbers that we are producing and unless we are in a position to control the Expenditure and increase the Earnings on a sustained basis, survival for the Organisation becomes a very difficult proposition. I am sure all of us are aware of this and will work towards improving the financial health of the Railways in a very- very concerted manner.

6.0 Address By Member Engineering

6.1 I congratulate the GMs for surpassing the targets for the new lines and gauge conversion during the year 2009-10. Approximately about 2000 kms. is being added to the system and this would help us in more loading and generating resources. This year targets have been kept as 1000 kms. for new lines 800 km of gauge conversion and 700 km of doubling.

6.2 GMs should personally monitor the progress on monthly basis and also visit the construction sites regularly. This will also help resolve lot of problems and provide a fillip to the people. A conscious decision has been taken that henceforth works assigned to PSUs like RVNL etc will end

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 just short of the yards and all the yard works will be done by the zonal railways. Concurrent with doubling and rest of the gauge conversion Railways must also get going with their NI proposals and the works in the yard such that they can take out the spur, block it and keep it ready for the line to be completed and added on. This will speed up the doubling works.

6.3 Commissioning of new lines is getting affected as CRSs are not inspecting the sections until the posts are formally created for maintaining the new sections. It is suggested that the matching surrender may be taken from anywhere and not necessarily from a particular department for creating the posts. Manning these posts may not be possible right away and may take some time. In the meantime instructions have been issued that all compassionate appointees excluding ladies and some people, have to be deployed as gangman.

6.4 Accidents while carrying out track works have been increasing. Safety instructions are not being followed and unsafe working is resulting in accidents and loss of life of the workers. Distances are not properly earmarked, tapes not being properly put and despite poor night time visibility, works are being permitted to be kept going. Proper caution thus needs to be exercised in this regard and laxity must not be permitted.

6.5 On the track side heavy IMR rails, after USFD are being reported and casual renewals have gone up. Board has been insisting that zonal railways must have the weigh bridges in position to check overloading. It is unfortunate that weigh bridges are at about 700 KMs from loading point and these too are lying defective for years. Weigh bridges need to be in working condition and must be used properly. New weigh bridges that have been sanctioned need to be located near the loading points on the right track. General Managers must ensure that this is taken care of. WILD that has been installed needs to be again examined and its effectiveness to detect flat wheels assessed properly. A single flat tyre if left undetected at times result in about 60

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 to 70 identifications through USFD of possible likelihood of fatigue fracture. So running overloaded wagons for 700 kms. without weighment is dangerous and counter productive as it may result in unnecessary speed restrictions if not curbed.

6.6 Proper GMT records need to be maintained on the basis of actual train running so that timely rail renewal can be planned.

6.7 Target for manning of the unmanned level crossings has gone up substantially. Porta cabins have been suggested for quicker implementation. Directives have been issued for providing telephone. Critical Level crossings have been identified and communicated to the zonal railways. Balance will be also be identified and distributed over the divisions. It is interesting to note that accidents at level crossings with virtually 500 TVUS to about 2500 TVUS are more than on very busy crossing with higher TVUs. Such level crossings are mostly on branch lines and needs to be identified by the zonal railways. Problems could also be known by talking to Sarpanchs. If necessary some gangman alongwith some other literate person can probably be deputed to guide the road users to be more cautious.

6.8 Sleepers are lying on number of railways and these are required by the zonal railways for various works. Railways requiring these must arrange wagons and get them moved before year end otherwise they will not be able to complete the works.

6.9 Long rail movement is getting affected as EURs lying with the railways are not being put to use for several months on account of some of the BRMs lying defective. It is thus necessary that defective BRMs are made good by Mechanical department early.

6.10 Railway has been able to complete 100 ROBs due to good work done by number of zonal railways especially Northern Railway. There are however some railways where the

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 works have been very poor. These railways need to improve. There has been a request made that limited height subways limit for sanction should be raised to Rs.2.5 crores. This can be considered if necessary. The progress of SRSF bridges is not satisfactory and has been poor on ECR, NER, SR and SER. GMs should keep a watch on it.

6.11 Machines are being misutilized in branch lines instead of using in main line. These machines are very expensive and cannot be allowed to be wasted. Directives have been issued that the machine is to be used on main line only unless and until the work is completed. After the main line work is completed it can be taken down to tier 2 and then to tier 3. Manual work will not be permitted on main line.

6.12 There are 8 railways which need to be strengthened by the time DFC comes up. Most of the works needed have been sanctioned and in case some more works needs to be sanctioned, the proposals be framed and sent to Board. Action plans be prepared for completion, as the target is March 2012.

6.13 Number of World class stations has been sanctioned. Time line given has to be strictly adhered to. Hon’ble MR is personally monitoring the progress. GMs should discuss with his team of officers and give quick approvals and not delay it for very petty reasons.

6.14 The railway land being identified and handed over for MFCs should not be changed subsequently and after discussions then frozen. All pipes and things coming in the way need to be removed by zonal Railway before handing over for MFCs.

7.0 Address by Member Electrical

7.1 The performance of the Electrical and the S&T disciplines on all railways have been excellent in all fields. Railways have especially performed well in terms of outage of locomotives and energy conservation drives. WCR and

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 NER have also received laurels from the apex levels of the Government for the outstanding achievements in the energy conservation. I congratulate all the GMs for the good performance.

7.2 The performance of Railway Electrification in the current year has been excellent, however, following factors are affecting the progress:

• The availability of blocks

• RRI works which are to be done by railways are getting delayed.

• Raising of FOBs at some places for example Utaratia, Varanasi & Sultanpur.

7.3 GMs should look into the above aspects so that the progress of RE works is not affected. It is in the interest of zonal railways to get RE works completed early as it will reduce its fuel expenses.

7.4 Performance and reliability of traction distribution assets on some railways is causing concern however, CEEs need to review maintenance progress closely.

7.5 The visibility of flashing tail lamps need to be improved. Trials have revealed that lamps procured about ten years back have performed as expected, and better than those procured today. Tail lamps having poor visibility should be got replaced before the next fog season particularly on the railways having fog.

7.6 Telemetric vigilance control devices are planned to be installed in locomotives in SCR this month. This is to active actions before the driver dozes off. This trial needs to be started as soon as this device is available. Based upon the trial report, the work will be taken up on other railways also.

7.7 There is a need to audit safety circulars posted on the crew management system by the clerks. Interpretation by

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 clerical staff is, at times, at variance with safety orders issued by Sr. DOMs, Sr. DSOs, and Sr. DEEs. This audit is a must so that proper instructions are communicated to the crew.

7.8 17 lakhs CFLs have been received from developers for distribution to railway employees in the railway quarter at 4 CFLs per household free of cost for energy conservation. Distribution was to be completed by 31st March this year but only 8 lakhs have been distributed so far. The distribution of balance CFLs needs to be expedited so that the developer is able to claim savings accrued on carbon credits.

7.9 Railways are providing high mast and other newer modes of lighting for energy conservation. All the redundant loads which are replaced should be disconnected so that both modes do not remain.

7.10 Group B selections need to be conducted by all railways for filling vacancies in Gazetted cadre. SE Railway has been able to achieve nil vacancies in S&T department. Other Railways also need to pursue this vigorously.

7.11 Eastern Railway should commence work on plot of land for Dankuni ancillary factory. The estimate in this regard has been sanctioned and other requirements have also been fulfilled. Shifting of quarters and substation need to be taken up at the earliest so that by the time, bids are finalised, site is available for the setting up of the factory.

7.12 S.E.Railway are to vigorously pursue for control of forest land to be regained from conservator of forest for the Adra Power house. We may have to find the alternative site for planting trees, to address the environmental conditions.

7.13 Land acquisition for Madhepura needs to be dealt with as notification have been issued long back. Payments have been made for 65 acres of land about an year ago and Railways have papers for another 250 acres of land for which payments are yet to be made. It is not correct to be in possession of acquired land and not make payment for it.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 7.14 CLW will have to manage with reduced outlay this year. To increase the outturn, Bhusawal and Dahod have been asked to assemble the locomotives with materials coming from CLW. This is possible as there is a temporary reduction in POH and MTR workload; instructions have been issued. CR and WR need to take action in this regard.

7.15 Dabhol POH workshop needs to come up early as we are fast reaching the stage when POH capacity will run short.

7.16 There are frequent complaints about the mobile charging sockets. It has been decided to provide at least one socket for mobile charging in each cubicle in AC coaches. Railways must implement these instructions early to avoid public complaints.

7.17 Five cases of coach fires out of 14 total cases originated due to electrical failures. The issue that needs to be tackled for controlling fire are:

• Not providing SLR flush light fitting has resulted in fire in one coach. Completion of flush fittings is long over due.

• There was a case of fire in Pantry car due to improper maintenance. Railways are not maintaining the pantry cars due to payment issues with IRCTC.

• Non availability of over voltage protection device was reason for two cases of smoke emission from coaches due to over voltage. These must be provided early on all coaches.

• Protective devices ensure that heaters (for winter) work with blowers or trip when the blower fails. Isolation of the device was cause of fire in two coaches. By passing of these relays during POH was the cause of fire in two coaches and needs to be looked into.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 • At the fuelling installations, fuel spills into ground and is a potential source of fire. Fuelling installations, particularly for the power cars must be checked out before summer sets in.

7.18 Netra car should be run once a year as it is very useful for the directed maintenance of OHE. Railways must draw up a programme in consultation with the RDSO and get the runs done.

7.19 Reliability of Electrical and S&T assets gets affected during monsoon. Tree trimming & yard drainages be ensured and sealing of the regulators of the LED be also done particularly in areas like Kanpur, Howrah, Mumbai, where water logging takes place, before monsoon sets in.

7.20 Orders for procurement of 100 Escalators will be placed by 31st March at a cost of Rs 53 lakh per escalator + Rs 2 lakhs per year for AMC. The railways will have option to operate the AMC. It has been possible to get the price lowered because of volume and standardization of specifications. All future procurements by the railways should be made to the standardised specification.

7.21 NCR should ensure that complete works of construction of Kanpur training school (sanctioned in bits and pieces) is executed in the planned way at one place by properly utilising the services of architect engaged for this. It is also planned to install a Simulator at the same venue in coordination with CLW.

7.22 The RCF will be turning out the new MEMU rake with the toilets by 31st March 2010 for the Northern Railway. Planning of watering and cleaning of these rakes should be in place well in time because this is going to be order of the day in the coming time.

7.23 During window trailing inspection on SR recently, visibility of signal was not satisfactory. Inspection drives by joint signal sighting committees have taken a back seat; committees must be restored.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 7.24 Targets for track circuiting works this year have already been communicated to the railways. Special efforts need to be made by railways like CR, NCR and ECoR where the work load is heavy and arrears pile up. As far as the IBH are concerned 117 are to be provided this year. Here also CR, NR and SECR have to expedite the progress. In track circuiting works for A and B routes, there are arrears on ECR, ER, NCR and ECoR.

7.25 Data logger monitoring is required as in some of the cases in enquiry, it has been found that there are noises in the data loggers and there are doubts about the reliability of the data. In this regard maintenance of data loggers has to be looked into.

7.26 Two TPWS projects are currently under trial on SR and NCR. On NCR it has been provided on two locos and 33 locos are yet to be equipped with TPWS. Initial reports in this regard are encouraging and the works should be completed.

7.27 On SR the maintenance of the on board equipment of the TPWS on the EMU rakes is to be entrusted to the shed as it is always better to have single agency dealing with the rolling stock equipment. Some modifications are to carried out to remove the EMI interference which is occurring in some of the motor coaches, the programme that has been drawn up and should be completed by May. Out of about 38 rakes, 5 rakes are still left to be done.

8.0 Address by Member Mechanical

8.1 The target for freight loading for 2010-11 is 944 MT. Availability of wagons and locos is a major constraint. A drive has been initiated to maximize the wagon manufacture which has given good results. Though wagon manufacture under RSP this year is about 40% more than last year, but it is not good enough. Addition of 18000 new wagons have been planned in the coming years. Since availability of wagon directly contributes to loading, maximum numbers of wagons will have to be made available for traffic.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 8.2 I compliment and congratulate all zonal railways for keeping ineffective well within targets. The wagon identified for maintenance must reach the maintenance point with minimum time delay. Railways should mark POH wagons selectively only at those locations from where they could quickly form the rake and send it to the shops. Maintenance capacity is enough and there is no reason why we should have any delay in executing the maintenance. The problem of ‘C’ category and loadable wagons has also been tackled by partly outsourcing it and partly by diverting it to our major workshops.

8.3 BOXNHL and BCNHL have been successfully introduced and more than 130 rakes are plying now. Tonne kms earned on these rakes are 42-50% more than the BOXN rakes as these have very high pay-load to tare ratio and 4 tonnes more pay load. These wagons have been cleared on Rajdhani routes for running at 75 KMPH in loaded condition and 100 KMPH in empty condition. This potential needs to be fully exploited by increasing the average speed of wagons.

8.4 Hon’ble MR in her budget speech has announced setting up of 5 new wagon manufacturing units in JV mode at Secunderabad, Burdhman, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati and Haldia. General Managers must identify the land for development of the business plan. There is already an offer from BBUNL for setting up a wagon unit at Burdhman on some 30-40 acres of land available by the side of the station. This needs to be explored on fast track.

8.5 To cater to the need of faster development of newer designs of special types of wagons that are required to cater to the traffic, a wagons proto-type centre at Kharagpur has been announced in the budget. This needs to be converted into a reality quickly. A refrigerator container factory has also been announced in the JV/PPP mode at Bujbuj.

8.6 As 18 to 20 thousand wagons are planned to be inducted every year in the next five years, there is a need to increase POH capacity. Besides sanctioned POH shop at Sonpur, a new wagon POH shop at Badnera(Amravati) on

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Central Railway has also been conceived, wagons maintenance ROH-cum-POH unit has been conceived for Eastern route at Dankuni and for the Western route at somewhere in Maharashtra. The plans need to be made out quickly, so that these proposals can be taken to their logical conclusion. Large number of passenger trains have been announced for which large number of new coaches will be required. ICF, RCF and BEML have been fully loaded to make more coaches available for introduction of these trains. As last year, it has been decided to extend the codal life of coach further by one POH period after careful examination. This will enable railways to generate more coaches for the new trains. It has to be ensured that the coach ineffective is low and coaches are available for traffic for most of the time.

8.7 There is a need to improve the looks of the coaches. Parliamentary Committees are carrying the impression that railways is running condemned coaches on the system as they look shabby from outside. The coach washing and coach cleaning systems need to be mechanised. The outward appearance of a coach is the only indication to the passenger about the health of coaching stock. The coach washing plant at Kurla is very effective; it can clean the entire rake within 10 minutes and requires very little water because it has a recycling arrangement. It gives a reasonable standard of cleanliness, although some hard stains are not cleared in one wash and require 2-3 wash, before they are removed. It’s a good effort. Such coach washing plants need to be installed at as many coaching depots as wherever they are possible.

8.8 Board has asked railways to go for mechanized cleaning in the coach washing lines, and also for OBHS so that staff spared can be used for other train maintenance requirements. Trains that are being returned from the platform should be taken up for OBHS in the first instance as these are having most of the complaints on cleanliness as there is no time to clean them at other end. Board will issue instructions in this regard. Clean train stations have been a very satisfactory experiment and must be

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 continued. Additional clean train stations can be considered by the railway where adequate stoppage facilities exist and sufficient numbers of trains stop.

8.9 Laundry in CR is working satisfactorily even after three months. Zonal railways have already given action plans for similar arrangement and I am very hopeful that in a year’s time Indian Railways will have 25-30 such laundries which will go a long way in improving passenger satisfaction. As far as distribution of linen is concerned present arrangement must continue.

8.10 New passenger services will need additional infrastructure for maintenance of coaches. Large number of works have been sanctioned, which need to be given same priority as traffic facility works.

8.11 Rae Bareli coach manufacturing factory is already on the anvil with 1000 coaches for meeting the shortage of coaches. Further new coach factories in JV mode have been announced for meeting the shortage of coaches at Kanchrapara and Kerala. Kanchrapara will manufacture EMUs, MEMUs and Metro coaches and Kerala will be making general coaches. In addition, DMU plant at Sankrail and coach factory at Singur has been announced in this year’s budget also in JV mode. Expansion of ICF Perambur has also been announced so that it can add on to the capacity and manufacture latest type of coaches. In addition a midlife rehabilitation shop has been announced at Adra. These initiatives will help in prolonging the life of coaches and coaches will also continue to look as good as new and meet our customers expectations.

8.12 “Green toilets’ being the mission area ten rakes need to be fitted with the green toilets manufactured by different manufacturers for extended trials. In addition, Indian Railways have gone for an MOU with DRDO for in house development of green toilets in our workshops. Bio- degradable toilets, vacuum toilets and chemical toilets will also be selectively tried on few trains.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 8.13 DLW and CLW are already producing locomotives much higher than the capacity. This has been possible by transferring work pertaining to old ALCO locomotives to Parel workshop. ALCO locos are being upgraded to enable trip schedules after 30 or 40 days against 10 days. This will make more diesel locomotives available for traffic. Two new loco plants one for diesel locomotives and one for electric locomotives have already been cleared by cabinet and they will be coming up in Marhora and Madhepura under JV/PPP mode.

8.14 As diesel prices have gone up there is a need to achieve economy in its consumption. Idle running of locomotives has to be avoided. GPS based optimized driver guidance system, is likely to give 8-10% fuel efficiency as has been reportedly achieved during trials on Konkan Railway using Australian technology. Every drop of oil has to be saved.

8.15 MR desires that there should be self sufficiency in the wheels. Wheel and Axle Plant at Bangalore continues to produce 2 lakh wheels. Chhapra Plant will be ready for trial run in another six months time and this will help Railway to produce large number of wheel discs and also to over come the shortage of axles. A new ‘Rail Axle Factory’ plant has been announced in New Jalpaiguri in JV/PPP mode. GM/NFR must identify the site for going ahead with this. Cast wheels produced in Bangalore are being tried out for application on EMUs and Diesel Locomotives and initial experiments have been successful. Import will continue in the high speed wheel area especially the LHB coaches, ABB locos and EMD locos. A State of the Art wheel development centre needs to be set up at Bangalore, Centre, for designs and testing of new wheels.

8.16 Budget allocations for workshop plan head have been reduced from Rs 1800 crore to Rs 1200 crore in 2010-11. The allotment this year must be spent. Some of the Railway has already surpassed their targets. The others should also tighten up their belt. Next year railways should only select those projects where money can be spent as money available next year is very limited.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 8.17 This year a target of Rs.3000 crores of scrap sales was set. Though there was lot of apprehensions in meeting the target, I am happy that by 16th of March itself Rs.3062 crore worth of scrap has been sold. I will like to congratulate all of you as we have already surpassed the target of selling scrap. It has been possible only because of the excellent work done by each one of you. I am quite hopeful that the revised target of Rs 3500 crore will also be achieved.

8.18 E-procurement has started in a big way on all the Railways. Some railways have implemented the MMIS and reaping the benefits, some railways are steadily behind. MMIS will also help in early finalizing of stores cases, reduced paper work and more customer satisfaction. Hence this needs to be continued.

9.0 Address by Member Staff

9.1 Railway Board had issued instructions in September 2009 for filling up of the promotional quota vacancies. While many zonal railways have done excellent work and completed 90% to 100% promotions, there are some Railways still lagging behind. GMs need to personally monitor this issue.

9.2 Six centralized Notifications have already been issued by nominated RRBs so far, for filling up around 25000 direct quota vacancies and it is expected that by April end all the centralized Notifications planned will be issued. By August or September 2010, panels will start becoming available for training. Since some of these panels will be large in numbers zonal railways will need to plan for their training well in advance. The HRR Committee has made out a good detailed plan in consultation with all ZRs which has been communicated to all GMs detailing out the advance planning required to be done by the GMs to create the required infrastructure. All these need to be put in place before Railways start getting the panels of ALPs, ASMs, Technicians etc. Board would be shortly advising the procedure to be followed by zonal railways for filling up the

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Group D vacancies. This will help zonal railways in filling up about 1.5 lakh vacancies in Group “C” and Group “D” presently existing in railways.

9.3 The progress in the recruitment drive against SC/ST and against physically handicapped short fall quota is being specifically monitored by Courts, under definitive time line. Hence this also needs GM’s personal attention.

9.4 Hon’ble MR has announced number of measures for staff welfare. Some of these are as follows:

• Contribution to the staff benefit fund has been enhanced from Rs.350 to Rs.500 per employee.

• MoU has been signed with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in which more than 500 hospitals at primary level, secondary level and tertiary level have been planned to be set up. This massive health care programme will benefit the line staff particularly at road side stations.

• The second MoU has been signed with Ministry of Human Resource Development. It lays down for the setting up 50 more Kendriya Vidyalays, modern degree colleges and technical and management institutions of national importance and 10 residential schools on the pattern of Navodaya Vidyalaya

9.5 Zonal Railways major role is to identify the land, so as to intimate the Ministry of Health or Ministry of Human Resource Development to develop these medical or educational facilities. These are closely monitored programmes announced in the Budget. GMs are requested to adhere to the time lines, whatever is intimated to the Railways.

9.6 3 RPF Battalions at Asansol, Manwal on NR and New Kooch Behar on NFR are to be raised and one Commando Training Centre at Canning is to be set up. Land and infrastructure for these have to be planned speedily.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 9.7 A Seven-Point Charter was unanimously adopted in the meeting held on 20.1.2010 in Railway Board with Home Secretaries of the States to review the security scenario which has been communicated to the ZRs for implementation. GMs should conduct exclusive weekly security review meetings to review the progress of implementation of the ISS and the seven-point charter. Minutes of the Meetings be advised to Board regularly.

9.8 Several Training Institutions have been announced, like Advanced Loco Pilot Training Centre at Kharaghpur, Advance Track Training Centre at Beliaghata and four Multi Disciplinary Training Centres at Cuttack, Koochbehar, Malda and Jabalpur. Land has to be identified for these and approved plans drawn up. These would essentially be on the lines of Zonal Training Centres supplementing the needs of the existing Zonal Training Centres.

9.9 Several announcements have been made in the field of Culture, Heritage and Sports, like setting up of cultural academies, music academies, cultural centres and museums. Culture and Heritage Promotion Board has also been announced. All these would require drawing up of plans and developing the infrastructure. GMs should prepare comprehensive plans by fully associating Unions and other related Associations.

10.0 Address by Member Traffic:

10.1 I complement all the GMs for not only achieving the loading target of 882 MTs, but by surpassing it by 8 MTs, as Railways are likely to load 890 MTs. Last two years have been financially quite difficult because of the extra burden of 6th Pay Commission Payments, hence this year we need to earn more and generate surpluses for recouping the development fund, DRF etc. The loading target for 2010-11 has been kept at 944 MTs, though the demand is in the range of 965 MT or even more. Hence a higher internal target would be set to cater to the needs of the industry.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 10.2 It will be necessary to improve the wagon availability for achieving the target. There is a need to concentrate on better utilizations of wagons and on reducing the terminal detentions by at least 15% by zonal railways. Running of closed circuit rakes is being planned. Rules regarding premium examination and extended runs between two examination points would also be formulated. BOXNHL & BCNHL and high speed wagons like BOXNHS & BCNHS need to be kept in proper circuit and run with locomotives which can move them at 100 kmph in empty conditions. Running time in Operation Chetak will accordingly be provided for each section on individual Zones.

10.3 Loco usage also needs to be improved.Lot of locomotives are getting wasted in the passenger/Mail/Express links, specially on trains running Bi-weekly, Tri-weekly or weekly. Locos are made to idle for up to 2-3 days to pick up their link. Such trains should be run with locomotives of mixed traction so that during lie-over period these locos can be released for freight operations. Pure Passenger locos should be put only on daily trains and it be ensured that locomotives are not made to idle for more than 8 hours. The judicious use of mixed traction locos will help run 128 new trains announced in the budget.

10.4 Availability of Crew availability is an area of concern. The booking of crew for stationary duty on regular basis is to be completely banned. It can be permitted for a maximum period of 15 days only and above 15 days only with the DRM’s approval under exceptional circumstances. During inspection of lobbies, it was learnt that many Loco Pilots and ALPs working on stationery duties in the lobbies, are conversant with computerised working and the whole task of Crew Management is being left to the CRIS representative, which is not acceptable. There is lot of room for improvements in Crew Management and the crew utilisation needs a thorough and judicious review.

10.5 Since the locomotives, both electrical and diesel, currently available are better in quality and in fine fettle, there is a need to increase the speeds of goods trains. The freight

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 trains in empty direction should run at 100 kmph with locos like WAG9. There should be a separate speed defined for empty trains and for loaded trains in ICMS to get the full advantage

10.6 All the Divisional Controls have been covered under the COA Programming, and computerised charting have been implemented. Through computerised charting, proper futuristic planning of crossings is possible only if the running time fed into computers is realistic as per Operation Chetak. It is seen that Empty trains are presently being run at 75 to 100 kmph, but speed of 45-50 kmph has been fed for charting. This leads to faulty planning of crossings and needs to be immediately rectified. GMs’ personal indulgence is needed. Proper scrutiny of the system would give an improvement of at least 20% in the operations on ZRs, as there are hardly any en-route wagon detachments of freight trains now and trains can run as planned.

10.7 Safety is another area of concern. Collision which happened on NCR was really unfortunate and happened due to driver’s negligence in not following the provisions of GR. The Driver did not the follow the GR due to some conflicting circulars issued by zonal railway.Zonal Railways might have their SRs and other circulars but it cannot be in contravention to the provisions of GR which are issued for all ZRs and are sacrosanct.

10.8 The number of accidents at unmanned level X-ings is also an area of constant worry. The automobile industry has plans to double up the production of automobiles during next 4 years. They are targeting the rural market. Thus the traffic on unmanned level X-ing, majority of which are located in rural areas will increase and pose a great threat to our train operations. Hence a concerted and well thought out plan is required to be adopted in order to reduce the number of unmanned level X-ing accidents during the next financial year and thereafter. In this respect Hon’ble MR has set out some targets in this year’s Railway Budget regarding manning of unmanned level X-ings, which have to be adhered to.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 10.9 All ZRs have been doing excellent work in area of passenger amenities. Stations have also shown improvements. However against the target of 378 stations to be made as Adarsh Stations, only 169 stations have so far been done up as Adarsh Stations, which is the cause of worry. GMs must ensure that by 31st March 2010, rest 209 stations are also completed.

10.10 Cleanliness and catering in the running train is another important area. Public complaints on these two accounts have substantially gone up. Lot of personal attention by GMs is required in this area. Illegal vending is also generating lot of public complaints and needs to be curbed.

11.0 Issues raised by General Managers

11.1 Central Railway

11.1.1 GM/CR stated that:

Central Railway is on restriction free regime for movement of trains since October last year.

Novel concept for controlling trespasser’s death on suburban Railway, by making trespasser aware of the speed of approaching trains, has been success fully tried to reduce accidents on unmanned level crossings.

CRB desired that the information on the system be given to all GMs as well as Railway Board.

Hospital Management System has been developed in house by Central Railway and has been successfully implemented and is found to be very useful. It was appreciated by all. “CRB desired that this should also be distributed to all the zonal railways.”

Large numbers of failures of fans of the Siemens rakes are taking place.

Large numbers of defects have been observed on mobile flash butt weld joints.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 ME indicated that the USFD testing should be done with 40 gain instead of 60 gain.

11.1.2 Board was requested to:

• Provide more AC-DC rakes for Central Railway.

• Provide additional funds for OLWR and PH-16.

11.2 Eastern Railway

11.2.1 GM/ER stated that: One non air conditioned rake for running new Doronto Train from Howrah is required.

1200 km survey work that was targeted to be done by ER will be completed.

Work on all targeted 178 stations will be completed by May 2010.

Restoration work of track after sabotage activities gets delayed. Board is requested for the deployment of two Battalions of RPSF for ER, considering the existing law and orders situation over Eastern Railway’s jurisdiction.

Eastern Railway has sent a proposal to the Board for nomination of two Estate Officers, which needs to be cleared early.

Supply of machinery from COFMOW needs to be expedited as M&P works are getting delayed.

Adequate supply of Wheel Discs to Eastern Railway is requested as shortages are likely to effect the work at Kanchrapara workshop.

11.3 East Central Railway

11.3.1 GM/ECR stated that: 6 out of 9 Adarsh stations will be completed by year end. Others will take longer because the Adarsh congruent in them is a part of a bigger ongoing work.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 ECR could have exceeded its originating freight loading target but for the Law & Order problem in coal loading area, which caused loss of 600 siding days/ 1070 rakes i.e. 4.5 MT.

ECR has the potential to achieve 83 MT in 2010-11 towards the overall Indian Railway target of 965 MT (Budget Target 2010-11).

Total 26 level Crossings have been identified for closure on E.C.Railway. Even though no target has been fixed by the Board, targets for closure of 15 level crossings were fixed internally. Out of these, so far 12 level crossings have already been closed and balance 03 level crossings will be closed by March end.

ECR has exceeded the target of track renewal and maintenance works,

Old SRSF works pertaining to Bridge renewal are under active execution and 2 out of 5 will be completed by March’10. Other bridge works are falling short of target mostly because of ETA constraints.

Work pertaining to new line construction, doubling and gauge conversion have been completed as per the target, although two small patches of doubling i.e. between Lakho to Umeshnagar and Kataria to Kosi cabin are left over, They get offset by surpassing of targets in respect of new line construction, given that Maheshnagar to Nawada has been completed in addition.

Very high targets set for sale of scrap have been achieved by almost doubling the value in rupee terms and more than tripling the amount in tones. Railway has earned twice than last year in sale of scrap and sold three times in tones.

The oldest SRSF work on IR i.e. RRI at Gaya, will be completed before year end. An NI in March is unprecedented.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Two more Mega ROBs with multiple entry exit points will be completed this month.

11.3.2 Assistance required:

Early creation of 13 Gazetted posts and 290 general posts for Harnaut Workshop is requested as the same is necessary for Open Line to take over the workshop and start the POH/IOH.

Grand Chord route is already saturated. ECR has witnessed an increase of 16.34% in loading from NCL area in 2009-10. This has led to an increase of 11% in interchange with WCR at Mahdeiya point. The present level of interchange is 8/10 trains per day. This Circuit needs to be strengthened further by better turn round of DSL and improve mobility in Katni section.

UP Country rakes from NER/ER may be run out via NER at Chhapra/Paninawa interchange point instead of UDL- GMO-GYA.

Creation of additional Bn. Of RPSF, located over East Central Railway at Kiul with deployment of some detachments at Hazaribagh to cater to the security needs of new Railway Line Hazaribagh-Shivpuri-Tori under construction.The location of RPSF Bn. At Kiul will help address the security problems of the Kiul-Jhajha and Kiul- Patna sections of East Central Railway, and the Kiul- Jamalpur and Jhajha-Jasidih sections of Eastern Railway. which are badly affected by Naxal violence. Railway Board has already been requested vide letter No. E/P/WP/15/ECR/HJP/2008-09 dated 15.03.2010 and letter of even number dated 19.03.2010.

From strategic and operation standpoint gauge conversion from Sitamarhi to Narkatiaganj is very important, as also construction of new line between Jaynagar to Bardibas (Nepal). Enabling allocation of funds is requested in current financial year.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 More funds need to be allocated under DF for construction of houses as officers are facing severe hardships. The officers have also been denied permission to retain houses at previous place of posting.

The forestry clearance applied to MOEF in 2006-07 for following projects are still pending despite regular follow up and meeting by CAO/C with Director General/Forest and ADG/Forest; (i) Hazaribagh-Shivpur-Tori

(ii) Koderma-Tilaiya (Jharkhand & Bihar portion)

MOU entered into between Ministry of Railway and Govt. of Jharkhand in regard to six railway projects in state of Jharkhand has expired on 18.02.07. Chief Secretary/Govt. of Jharkhand vide letter no. Pari-AYN-101/06/175 dt. 28.02.09 and 472 dt. 17.06.09 addressed to Chairman, Railway Board was requested for early signing of MOU.

11.4 East Coast Railway

11.4.1 GM/ECoR informed that:

ECoR will be able to achieve the revised loading target of 104.35 million tonne. 18 rakes are being loaded on a sustained basis in the KK line. 30 rakes are being loaded at Talchar.

ECoR has been able to man 30 L/C Gates, other two L/Gate would be manned by March end.

Three ROBs have been completed against the target of six ROBs balance 3 will be completed in next financial year.

A policy decision needs to be taken regarding the recruitment of Group ‘D’ category on priority, as majority of the Group ‘D’ recruitments currently are in the Gangman category and there is reluctance on their part to work as gateman.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 There appears to be some fault with the basic designing of the WILD, as the same flat has given 60 different measurements/readings. A report to this effect has been communicated to the Board and the Board is requested to look into the matter.

There are number of works, specially doubling works, entrusted to the RVNL, which are not targeted and apparently not monitored at Board’s level. This is hurting the progress of these works. ECoR is facing lot of a constraint in moving traffic out of Khurda Road to Bhadrak and to feed empties into Talchar. Hence, these works must be monitored at Board’s level. Also, electrification works entrusted to RVNL are apparently not being monitored at the Board’s level.

“ME stated that these would be monitored and targeted at Board’s level and time-lines would be drawn for such works entrusted to RVNL.”

System deficiencies existing in Crew Management System, as pointed out by MT, would be suitably addressed to.

To educate railway passengers, safety slides are being exhibited in the 26 Cinema Halls of 4 cities. Safety Stickers are being pasted in STC Buses.

10 Weigh Briges are functional on ECoR, 4 more Weigh Bridges are getting installed and two Way Bridges are being put up by NMDC, to take care of overloading problems on KK line.

MT stated that since the problem of iron-ore loading being faced on ECoR may not get sorted early; ECoR should concentrate on the loading 33-34 rakes at Talchar.

11.5 Northern Railway

11.5.1 AGM/NR stated that:

Coaching Work load in Delhi Area at all the places, Delhi Main, NZM and New Delhi, has gone up substantially as more than 250 Mail/Express trains are being handled daily.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 It is thus requested that primary maintenance of new trains be handled by other Zonal Railways from where this trains originate/terminate.

Very large number (average 50) of inspections of each station are being carrying out by various officers. Station Master remains busy giving compliance report, rather them doing their actual work. It is thus proposed that Quality Audits of station be done as is the practice world wide, which is a detailed inspection carried periodically instead of routine inspections. This will give lot of time to station staff for bringing qualitative change in mainlines of stations at the grass root level.

11.5.2 Assistance Required: Though Indian Railway Act (Sec.100) implies that Railways are not truly responsible for loss of un booked luggage on trains. NCRF (National Consumer Redressal Forum) is passing judgments in favour of parties. This thus needs to be contested through SLP against the above judgments otherwise this will continue, burdening IR needlessly.

11.6 North Central Railway

11.6.1 N.C.Railway has taken following initiatives for improving efficiency as well as passenger services:

• All the modules of PRIME and AFRES have been fully implemented in N.C.Railway which is a first on Indian Railways. On Jhansi and Agra Divisions, terminals have been provided in the lobby for crews to access their payment details so that they do not have to go to Divisional offices for this information. Similar facility has been given to all the vendors so that they can access their current bill status on line.

• Station Level Safety Committee has been formed at all important stations in consultation with Civil Authority to control crime against passengers in running trains like theft, jaharkhurani etc. The Committee consists of

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 representatives from GRP, RPF, Vendors as well as Coolies.

• Special efforts are being made for increasing the special potential on various sections as well as making more sections fit for CC+8+2 traffic in the coming financial year.

11.6.2 Assistance required:

• Clarification regarding educational qualification for filling handicapped quota (Group ‘D’) is pending with Railway Board for quite some time as a result of which no recruitment is being done in this category.

• The punctuality of Mail/Express trains on North Central Railway is not up to the mark mainly on account of trains losing on ‘Other Railways’ account and ‘ Out of Path’. Though, this has been highlighted to the concerned railways, the main difficulty is at palwal interchange point with NR. System of manual entry of train data on PAM at interchange points should be totally stopped.

• There is shortage of coaches in North Central Railway, and there is need for additional MEMU/EMU coaches as well as general coaches for augmenting various passenger services due to heavy over- crowding in the trains.

• Additional allotment (to the extent of 250 Cr) in OWE is requested mainly due to lower initial BG allotment as compared to actual of 2008-09(much below IR average).

11.7 North Eastern Railway

11.7.1 GM/NER stated that: Automobile traffic has been captured in Uttranchal. This year 130 rakes of Nano and Mini trucks etc have been loaded giving an earning of Rs 14 cr., compared to 18 rakes earning Rs 2.2 cr. last year.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Container loading terminal has been opened at Bilaspur Road station and 3 rakes of Nano have been loaded.

Other coaching earning has increased by 54.7% upto February compared to last year.

Special efforts to improve safety have helped in reducing accidents by 10 as compared to last year.

74 lacks SMS were sent all over Uttar Pradesh about precaution in unmanned level crossing accidents at the cost of Rs 1.39 paisa per SMS compared to 3.5 paisa per SMS sent by other railways, by directly dealing with BSNL.

Airport type trolleys have been provided at Lucknow station.

Public complaints are being received, acknowledged and replied by SMS within 6 hrs.

Cabway is being provided at Gorakhpur and Lucknow stations as available at Howrah station, where passenger car can directly reach the train.

ISO certification of Disaster Management plan for all the 3 divisions and headquarter.

3.6 KW Solar UTS have been provided at Khalilabad station that does not have electricity connection.

All the 124 medically de-categorized staff have been redeployed.

11.7.2 Board is requested: To provide 10 BRN rakes per month. To sanction 8 Nos. Gazetted posts for new Electric Traction as per yard stick.

To expedite doubling, 15 rakes of ballast per month are required from Pakur.

Diesel locos are required for movement of ballast.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 To revise the existing criteria of 6000 TVU for manning as, as per this criteria, only 20 gates qualify for manning.

11.8 Northeast Frontier Railway

11.8.1 GM /NFR stated that: Increase in accidents is on account of Unmanned Level Crossings. Safety drives have been launched to remove deficiencies in Unmanned L-xings and Pantry Cars as well as stepped up awareness campaign to educate road users.

Target for manning has been exceeded. Till 17.03.10, 28 have been manned against 15.

29 level crossing gates have been closed by merging the road traffic with adjacent level crossing gates.

3 nos. ROBs are being constructed in lieu of L-xing on cost sharing basis which will be completed by June 2010.

Automated Laundry for washing of linen of 1 Ton capacity is being set up at Kamakhya Jn. to address the problem of cleanliness of bed rolls permanently.

The work of Adarsh Station is in progress at 11 stations and likely to be completed by 31.03.10. In addition to these, two more stations – Duliajan & Margherita have been renovated as ‘Adarsh’ Stations on our own initiative. There is only one M.F.C. being done departmentally at Silchar. Site clearance is under progress. Consultancy tender is being opened on 29.03.10.

Gauge conversion of Haibargaon – Mairabari (44 km.) has already been completed and commissioned and that of Fakiragram – Dhubri (66 km.) will be completed by March ’10 as per target.

11.8.2 Assistance required:

The location of Multidisciplinary Training Centre may be finalised by Board as there is ambiguity in the Budget Document and Pink Book.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 • The agency to do MFC work may be decided by Railway Board as last year three agencies were roped in.

• The guideline for Kisan Vision Project, Rail Axle Factory & Wagon Manufacturing factory to be set up through PPP/JV may be issued as Railway will not be in a position to proceed further.

• Railway Board may decide whether Clean Drinking Water will be done by IRCTC as was done last time.

• BOSEN rakes are needed for loading of gypsum and dolomite.

• Early sanction of 13 Estimates are lying in Railway Board for more than 1 year is requested.

• Early award of tender pending, for more than 1 year in Board is requested.

• Cost Authorisation (Rs. 450 crs.) for this year to meet with financial liabilities against capital grant is requested.

11.9 North Western Railway

11.9.1 GM/NWR stated that: Accidents have reduced on NWR as compared to last year.

Large numbers of public awareness campaigns were launched through television, ETV, Doordarshan. Alert through the SMSs’ are also being sent.

Efforts are being made to close number of level crossings with traffic less than 500 TVUs.

As far as financial performance is concerned NWR will be achieving the earning target of Rs. 2962.57 crores. Operating ratio of 114 will be achieved against the target of 120.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Revised scrap sale target of Rs. 264 crores has also been surpassed and NWR will be achieving Rs. 320 crores.

11.9.2 Assistance required : • Homing of WDG4 and WDP4 locos, since the length of trains has gone up and they are loosing time during run.

• As for as targets regarding new lines and gauge conversion works for the year 2010-11 are concerned, help is required in respect of rails and sleepers from Engineering Department.

11.10 Southern Railway

11.10.1 GM/SR stated that:

The retiring rooms status may be put up on the PRS system. This will tremendously increase the occupancy of these retiring rooms. The current occupation is merely 20 to 25%.

MT stated that it is planned to put the Retiring Rooms status on the Indian Railway website for their optimum occupancy.

It is requested to look into the policy regarding charging of Re 1. per person by the JTBSs.

11.11 South Central Railway

11.11.1 GM/SCR stated that: Re-engagement of ASMs/LPs up to 62 years of age as done for Engineering staff for opening newly converted Broad Gauge sections be permitted.

Material modification for completing Jaggayyapet- Mellacheruvu new line (21.6 KM) as a Railway project with an ROR of 38.64% be sanctioned for getting additional loading of 6 MT.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 60 ACCNs, 64 GSCNs, 244 GSs coaches for augmentation of trains / new trains, 4 DMU rakes, 4 EMU rakes & 4 MEMU rakes is requested.

Permission to fill up ex-servicemen quota separately be given as able – bodied and disciplined ex-servicemen panels are available with servicemen rehabilitation commission, speaking the local language. They are ideally suited for track patrolling.

Manning of gates will require creation of large number of posts, Board is requested to release funds from the Board’s vacancy bank for future requirements.

The powers of GM may be enhanced to Rs. 2.50 crore for sanction of Limited Height Subways.

Additional funds are needed for track renewal works.

For prompt communication during unsafe situations, CUG phones may be permitted to be given to Trackmen also.

To enable manning of LCs, creation of Gatemen posts should be permitted without matching surrender.

The following policy modifications are required in JTBS to make the scheme successful.

Security deposit of Rs. 10,000/- be withdrawn. Bank guarantees of Rs. 10,000/- be withdrawn. Since one rupee service charge is unacceptable to short distance travellers, service charges may be waived on tickets valuing Rs. 20/- so that short distance UTS tickets will be brought from JTBS operators.

JTBS operators to be compensated in turn by 5% of value of low value tickets sold as have also been offered to smartcard holders through ATVMs.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 To reduce queues at Booking counters retired Railway staff (Commercial clerks) with good service record may be permitted to be re-engaged.

The Railway may be allotted at least 100 more general service ATVMs to reduce the queses at Booking counters.

Issue norms for creation of Group ‘C’ &’D’ staff for S&T.

Implementation of ACD on Bellary – Renigunta section of SCR is part of Hon’ble MR’s budget speech for 2010-11.

Early procurement of Diesel Simulators by COFMOW is requested.

Board’s early approval is requested for various proposals for Medical College, Nursing College, upgradation of Burns Ward and Dormitory for patients’ attendants.

11.12 GM/South Eastern Railway

11.12.1 SER is issuing advertisement on FM radio, organising road shows and puppet shows and putting up banners/posters etc. for reducing accidents at unmanned level crossings.

13 level crossings gates have been interlocked against the target of 10 L/C gates and 13 level crossings gates have been manned against the target of 10 and by the end of March, 2010, 18 L/C gates will be manned.

Five ROBs have been completed and five will be completed in 2010-11.

South Eastern Railway has achieved the loading of 115.34 million tonne, which is about 9 million tonne more than the last year.

The financial performance of South Eastern Railway is slightly lower due to down gradation of Iron-ore classification from class 200X to class 180 which should be enhanced.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Board is requested to review the Freight Marketing Circular No.12 regarding the opening of iron-ore loading sidings within the railway land.

MT stated that the issue is being looked into and a corporate decision would be taken in due course.

GM confirmed that

• Six bridges are left to be completed against the targeted SRSF Bridge works. Two bridge works would be completed in March, 2010 and the remaining of 4 bridge works would be completed by the end of year 2010-2011.

• The matter regarding land for Adra Power House Project has been discussed with West Bengal State Govt. Chief Conservator of Forest has agreed to give the land back to the Railways. The case is presently lying with the West Bengal Govt. for further approval.

• Out of 32 others stations announced during the last budget of 2009, 16 has already been completed. Two will be completed by April, 2010, one by May, 3 by June, 6 by July and 2 by December, 2010. This year’s budget has stipulated for 13 more others stations; those will also be completed by March, 2011.

AM/Stores is requested to make Centralized purchase of certain steel structural items like 1.6 mm and 3.15 mm sheets, which are specially made by SAIL for Indian Railways.

11.13 South East Central Railway

11.13.1 GM/SECR stated that: SECR would be able to achieve the targeted freight loading of 132.6 million tonnes. It is requested that constant and uninterrupted supply of wagons be ensured to achieve the full potential of loading.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 SECR has been able to earn Rs.129 crores from scrap disposal against the target of Rs.119 crores.

Early posting of two SAG Civil Engineering Officer to SECR is requested.

The issue of Group ‘B’ promotions, selections for which were originally done by South Eastern Railway, and the supervisors belonging to the SECR Railway wanting to continue on SECR itself after promotion, has been an area of dispute. Several references on this issue has been made to Board and the Board is requested to issue suitable guidelines on it.

Last year, SECR had submitted a Survey Report regarding the Raigad-Mand section, which promises to give around 12 million tonne traffic by the end of 2012. Raigadh-Mand section will cost Rs.329 crs with ROR of 29%. Board is requested for the sanction of this project early.

11.14 South Western Railway

11.14.1 GM/SWR stated that:

22 Limited Height Subways have been constructed against the target of 20.

Land has been handed over to RLDA both at Mysore and Hubli for construction of MFC,

The recruitment of Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ staff needs to be expedited as there is acute shortage of manpower for maintaining new assets. CRS has also instructed Construction Organization to reduce the number of work sites since the supervisory staff is not available in adequate numbers.

Permission is required for recruitment in Group ‘D’ for manning of LC gates as there are 2800 vacancies of Trackman on SWR.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 JPO has been issued for maintenance of pantry cars and at the beginning as well as at the end of the trip, joint inspection is being carried out along with the representatives of IRCTC to get the deficiencies noted for taking remedial measures.

UTS will be available at almost all the ‘E’ Class stations. However, the policy directives from the Board are needed for providing UTS facility at the halt stations where agents issue the tickets; otherwise printing of card tickets will have to continue.

South Central Railway may be asked to hand over more BOXN empties at Bellary point to improve Iron Ore loading at limited no. of terminals.

11.14.2 Assistance required:

Posts of CPO and FA&CAO being workcharged posts, permanent posts may be provided.

11.15 Western Railway

11.15.1 GM/WR stated that:

WR will be achieving a freight loading of about 58 million tonnes. The Railway could have done an additional loading of upto one to one half million tones but for inadequate availability of jumbo rakes on the system. Against the target of 135 rakes of holding of jumbo rakes, during the last 3 months; WR has been holding as low as 55 to 60 jumbo rakes on a number of days and never more than 85 to 90 rakes.

WR has the potential of loading of 68 million tones in the year of 2010-11 and the same can be achieved if adequate support of supply of jumbo rakes is ensured.

The freight earning has been18% more over last year and passenger earnings approx. 4% more over the last year although less than the revised BG due to very high targets fixed for the railway.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 All instructions of the Board regarding safety drive, manning of level crossing gates, closure of LC gates, are being strictly followed. Total unmanned level crossing gates closed so far on the railway is 158 and all the sanctioned 40 LC gates have been manned.

A number of works pertaining to “Image Makers” have been undertaken by the Railway, which have invited good response from the public. Almost all the works of Adarsh station are getting over but for giving ethnic look to the stations, for which railway may take another 3 months time.

11.15.2 Assistance Required:

Fund allocation for the year 2010-11 are inadequate as a major share of the allocation will get eroded after making payments held up during the current year. Unless the allocations are improved, the work of traffic facility, passenger amenity and S&T works will get adversely affected. Board is requested to increase the allocations under these heads particularly under DRF and DF

Early clearance of some of the detailed estimates sent to Railway Board for sanction was also requested.

11.16 West Central Railway

11.16.1 GM/WCR stated that:

There has been considerable improvement in safety performance of WCR during the year (upto Feb.’10). There have been only 02 accidents (01 on an unmanned level crossing gate and 01 derailment of goods train) as against o6 accidents in the corresponding period of last year.

E-procurement system has been fully implemented on WCR. As a result, no stores tender is waiting for finalisation for more than 02 months and the over-all finalisation time for stores tenders has come down to less than a month. It has also improved transparency.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 WCR will be able to achieve revised target Rs. 183 crores in respect of scrap disposal during this year.

All WCR coaches have been provided with Over Voltage Protection Relays now.

A drive was undertaken during the year for the disposal of non-moving items. As a result, the numbers of non- moving items have been brought down from 1408 to 844 and the inventory of non-moving items reduced from Rs. 6.44 crores to Rs. 3.12 crores.

WCR has achieved a stares turn-over ratio of 32% as compared to 51% last year.

WCR has exceeded the target of closer of LC gates, construction of RUB and manning of LC gates.

11.16.2 Assistance required:-

During the year (upto Feb,’10), WCR has been supplied with only 15.61 jumbo rakes per day as against 17.15 per day last year. This has affected the loading adversely. To achieve the target of loading, 2.93 MT are required to be loaded by WCR now during the month of March 2010. Unless sufficient empty jumbo rakes are supplied, it would be difficult to achieve this target.

Additional posts of Gateman are required for manning of L.C. gates. The work has been managed up –till- now by creating the posts from the vacancy bank of WCR. It may, however, not be possible to do so in future also as the vacancy bank position is quite precarious on WCR. Board is requested to provide matching surrender from Board’s vacancy bank for this purpose, whenever needed.

61 additional coaches are required by WCR for augmenting 14 trains. In addition, 37 coaches are becoming due for condemnation. These also need to be made good.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 There is an immediate need to provide Pantry Cars in three trains on WCR viz. Jabalpur-Jammu Tawi Express(1449/1450), Jabalpur-Somnath Express (1464/1463) and Jabalpur-Howrah shaktipunj Express (1447/1448).

There are large number of Group-D vacancies on WCR which need to be filled up urgently.

11.17 Metro Railway

11.17.1 GM/ Metro Railway stated that:

On safety front Metro Railway is facing the problem of passenger suicides by sudden jumping before the arriving trains at stations. Preventive action by messages on PA system and announcements on CCTV have not been very effective.

Increased emphasis on field level inspections has been laid. Regular safety meetings at stations are held by Station Superintendents and at work sites by site in charge.

In the elevated section 21 signals have been replaced with LED type to improve visibility.

Six repeater signals of starter have been provided at four stations for the conducting motormen.

Tender for Automatic block system has been opened but in the meanwhile RDSO has withdrawn the approval of both the tenderers i.e. Eldyne and Siemen’s MSDAC. AM/Signal has been requested to help out.

Train radio system’s tender is waiting for Board’s clarification on provision of MSC from ECR or Kolkata and for inclusion of cab radio in the same work.

Application for trials to increase the speed to 80 kmph has been submitted to CRS.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 Metro Railway is expected to exceed the earnings target thought there may be some shortfall in sundry earnings from land development as the sites offered to RLDA have not been awarded/ taken up.

There is slight increase is revenue expenditure, mainly due to energy charges for extended section and payment of 6th Pay Commission arrears.

Cleaning staff and checking assistants have been departmentalized in compliance of Railway Board’s order and about 600 persons regularized in Railway service as substitutes. These should increase the staff cost charges in next year.

Mechanization of cleaning activities is planned.

Tender for Integrated security System has been floated.

In compliance of Budget announcement survey reports for (i) Baraanagar - Barackpoue & Dakhineswar (ii) Noapara – Barasat via Biman Bander (iii) Dum Dum Airport – New Garia via Rajarhat (iv) Joka – BBD Bag via Majerhat works were sent and these have appeared in Pink Book 2010-11 as sanctioned work.

For Eco park at Noapara a reference has been, made to Engineering and Electrical branch of Railway Board for guidance.

11.17.2 Assistance required:

Board’s assistance is sought for new rakes from ICF which are affecting punctuality and reliability both, as for the extended section the availability of rakes as stand by and even for maintenance is getting adversely affected.

11.18 CORE

11.18.1 GM/CORE stated that:

The energization done in the current year up to Feb.10 is 692.5 RKM/1338.44 TKM. This is 112.69% more than the energization of 325.62 RKM achieved during the same

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 period of 2008-09. The energization for the full year of 2009-10 is expected to be between 850 to 900 RKM. The likely shortfall as against the target of 1000 RKM is on account of failure of contractors in six groups.

CRS inspection has been done for 421 RKM. Further application have been submitted for 52 RKM. CRS is however insisting creation of posts of maintenance staff. The creation thus needs to be expedited or CEENR should certify that he would be able to maintain the section with the existing maintenance staff.

Rosa-Moradabad section would be ready for commissioning by March’11. The main constraint is S&T works of MACLS to be done between Bareilly-Moradabaad section for which about 20000 concrete sleepers and sizable number of glued joints are to be inserted by N. Rly. for completion of track circuiting works on loop lines. Board is requested to intervene and find a solution.

Acute shortage of staff in effecting the pace of electrification works as it is not possible to under take all the activities in parallel.

Though Board has accorded approval for engagement of Project Management Consultants, however, the same is not of much use unless necessary changes in the Engineering Code are made authorizing Project Management Consultants to fill measurement book.

Member Engineering advised that it would not be possible to authorize PMCs to fill the measurement book.

Approvals for various drawings, site plans, condonation etc. take excessive time to the extent of four to six months or even more affecting the progress of RE works on account of cumbersome procedure of approvals in which large number of officers of the Division and Zonal Railways sign on the drawings etc. System of nodal officers for the Division and the Zonal Railways be introduced so that approvals can be given by the nodal officers on behalf of the Division and Zonal Railways for simplifying the procedure and cutting down the time for approvals.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 12.0 Issues raised by Federations

12.1 General Secretary/AIRF

AIRF appreciated the number of welfare schemes announced by Hon’ble MR for railway staff and requested Hon’ble MR to extend the safety related voluntary retirement scheme to other Safety category staff as also Grade pay.

There are large number of vacancies, which is leading to extra workload on existing staff. It is also leading to outsourcing and offloading regular work to private firms which is resulting in failures and is also affecting safety of passengers and railway staff working on line. The mega notices issued for filling various operational posts will provide relief but only after 2-3 years as the training will have to be imparted to the recruited staff.

It was requested that recruitment of Group “D” staff be done in house and past practice of engaging substitutes be started again. Instructions to induct Act Apprentices as group “D” be implemented.

“Hon’ble MR stated that mode of recruitment of Group “D” be discussed with the Unions and resolved.

In the last meeting it was decided that Joint committee will be formed that will resolve the problems of Trackmen,Gatemen, Keyman,Mate etc.

“Board was asked to expedite the formation of the committee”

In-house recruitment of the handicapped staff under handicapped quota was requested.

Anomalies’ in Grade pay of Rs.1900, 2800 and 4600 is causing lot of discontentment and needs to be resolved by approaching Finance Ministry.Problems of payment of 6th Pay commission arrears to Loco running staff also needs

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 to be resolved. Increase in the deduction from income tax be raised from Rs.6000 to Rs.15000 on account of mileage.

High powered committee be set up to review the duty hours of safety category employees.

It was requested to upgrade apex grade Sr.Supervisors into Group “B”.

It was informed that introduction of grade pay of Rs. 2000 is resulting in loss to the Technicians.

“As this is a creation of the DoP &T Hon’ble MR asked MS to pursue with DoP&T.”

GMs were requested to give the benefits of Group “C” to Group “D” employees as per the 6th pay commission recommendations.

Some facilities and concessions were requested for women employees like crèches, common room facilities, child care leaves etc.

“ MR stated that these will be considered sympathetically.”

Classification of employees should not be changed without factual Job analysis.

Security of staff was requested from irate mob, passengers and terrorists. They are even forced to pay protection money in certain railways,

“DG/RPF was asked to provide special security cover to the railwaymen on particular sections.”

Member Staff was requested to introduce 5 day computer awareness programme in each module.

Issue of Privilege pass to employees working in Grade pay above Rs 4200 and Rs. 2800 be resolved early. Travel on

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 privilege pass on Duronto be also permitted.

Hon’ble MR was requested to meet Unions bi-monthly.

12.2 General Secretary/NFIR

NFIR is thankful to Railway Minister for decisions regarding staff welfare measures, filling up of vacancies, modification to staff related retirement scheme and setting up of training centres, sports and Cultural academies etc.

Early decisions is requested with regards to:

• Review of duty hours of Running Staff and other safety categories. • Upgradation of 15% post from group “C” to Group “B” • Early indication of course completed apprentices against vacancies.

Railway Board’s proposal is pending with Finance Ministry and CBDT for enhancement of Income Tax exemption limit incase of running staff and for improvement of VI Central Pay Commission Grade Pay. This needs to be pursued.

Constitution of a Committee to consider the service conditions of Trackmen, Gateman Category as decided in the last GMs’ Conference needs to be expedited.

Matching surrender should not be insisted upon for creation of new posts for new assets/new services.

Activities related to Safety should not be outsourced.

Board may consider engagement of former substitutes/Casual labour against vacancies in grade Pay of Rs 11100.

NFIR extends its compete support towards making IR as the best Transportation Infrastructure in the years ahead.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 12.3 Secretary General /FROA

Cadre Restructuring of the officers is pending for the last two years. This needs to be expedited.

Hon’ble MR directed that the process be completed at the earliest.

Proposal to upgrade the post of General Managers to the Apex level/grade needs to be vigorously pursued with Finance Ministry.

The officers especially in the Metro cities are facing enormous shortage of housing as well as rest houses. This issue needs to be addressed on an urgent basis

Hon’ble MR stated that all pending construction projects for houses be completed at the earliest and more rest houses be constructed on land available with the Railways to take care of the shortage of rest houses for officers.

12.4 Secretary General /IRPOF

Railways should be treated differently from other ministries as it is working on commercial lines and is one of the biggest transport industry of the world and field officers forming the middle management play an important role in its working. It is thus necessary that their motivational level is maintained at a very high level.

The issue of grade pay of Rs 5500 to all Group B officers which was also raised in last conference needs to be taken up with Finance Ministry and redressed early as it is highly demoralising for Group “B” officers. It is also leading to an anomaly that junior supervisors failing to qualify for Group “B” end up getting higher grade pay under MACP scheme.

There is heavy stagnation of upto 13 years in Group “B”, which needs to be reduced.

Upgradation to higher posts should not result in reduction

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010 in Senior scale and JA grade posts as it is adversely affecting the functioning in the field due to paucity of senior scale officers.

As modern technology is being inducted to improve the productivity, number of staff/ officers ratio need to be altered in favour of officers.

Hon’ble MR asked Board to prepare the paper from her side for taking up the issue of grade pay with Finance Ministry, on priority and also asked Board to resolve the stagnation problem. It also needs to be ensured that there is no reduction in Senior Scale/ JA and Selection grade posts.

12.5 General Secretary/AIRPFA

PNM Meeting with AIRPFA at Apex level is long overdue and should be held regularly as per calendar as has also been directed by Hon’ble MR.

Decisions taken in earlier Meetings should be implemented.

Corrigendum Gazette Notification dated 05.011.2007 of the Union Ministry of Law and Justice should be published in the official gazette notification of the Ministry of Railways.

Monthly meeting with MR with Federations/Association is requested for promoting harmonious industrial relations.

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Proceedings of GMs’ Conf held on 17th March 2010