Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw carried out an elaborate assessment exercise of various aspects of safety and passenger amenities with top officials at the Rail Bhawan here on Monday. Those who attended the meeting were Railway Board Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jaya Varma Sinha and Member Infrastructure Anil Kumar Khandelwal, the director general of the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and the general managers of all railway zones and divisional railway Managers from all divisions.
According to officials who attended the meeting, several important decisions regarding the upkeep of safety equipment in trains, improvement of the food quality, deep cleaning of trains and stations and drinking water facilities were taken in the interest of the passengers. “To improve the reliability of the safety-related equipment, it was decided that the specifications, installation practices and maintenance practices of all key safety-related equipment would be reviewed. This would be done in workshops to be organised by the RDSO with all the manufacturers,” a senior railway official said. “To improve the food quality, the IRCTC and its agencies are upgrading the base kitchens at 1,000 locations. The work is in progress and it was decided that it should be completed on a war footing in the next six months,” he added. Other senior officials said decisions were taken to carry out deep cleaning of the pantry cars and storage areas in a target-oriented manner and also include it in the maintenance schedule so that it can be done on a regular basis. “To improve water availability and cleaning of trains during journeys, it was decided that cleaning and watering facilities will be increased. The time required for cleaning and watering will be factored in in the time-tables for this crucial activity,” another official said.