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Government Schemes and Programs

Ministry of Railways – Schemes and Programs

Ministry of Railways

About Ministry

  • The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the country’s rail transport. The ministry operates the state-owned Indian Railways, an organisation that operates as a monopoly in rail transport and is headed by the Chairman of Railway Board.
  • The ministry is headed by the Minister of Railways, a cabinet-level minister who used to present the rail budget every year in parliament.
  • The Railway Board, which is the apex body of the Indian Railways reports to the Minister of Railways. The Railway Board comprises one Chairman, seven members of the Railway Board, and a Financial Commissioner (who is the representative of the Ministry of Finance in the Railway Board). It also includes a Director-General (Railway Health Services), Director-General(personal) and a Director-General (Railway Protection Force).

Government Schemes of Ministry of Railways, NEW TRAINS & COACHES, DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR, VIKALP, AVATARAN, MISSION SATYANISHTHA etc., Notes for exam...

 

AVATARAN

  • Introduced in Ministry of Railways Budget 2016-17
  • 7 Mission activities to transform Indian Railways
Objectives
    • Transformation of Indian Railways through seven Mission mode activities.
Salient Features
    • It was launched in budget 2016-17 and envisages the following –
      1. Mission 25 Tonne – It aims to increase revenue by augmenting carrying capacity. To achieve this 10-20% freight loading will be done through 25-tonne axle-load wagons in 2016-17 and target movement of 70% of freight traffic on high axle load wagons by FY19-20.
      2. Mission Zero Accident – It comprises of two sub missions
          • Elimination of unmanned level crossings: The goal is to eliminate all unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge in the next 3-4 years.
          • TCAS (Train Collision Avoidance System): An indigenous technology has been developed to prevent head on collisions and improve throughput by increasing average sectional speeds.
      3. Mission PACE (Procurement and Consumption Efficiency) – This mission aims to improve our procurement and consumption practices to improve the quality of goods and services.
      4. Mission Raftaar – It targets doubling of average speeds of freights trains and increasing the average speed of superfast mail/express trains by 25 kmph in the next 5 years. Loco hauled passenger trains will be replaced by Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) and Diesel Multiple unit (DEMU) coaches over the next five years. It will complement Mission 25 Tonne to increase throughput of the railway system.
      5. Mission Hundred – This mission will commission at least a hundred sidings (low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur) in the next 2 years.
      6. Mission beyond book-keeping – It will establish an accounting system where outcomes can be tracked to inputs. This will transform IR as right accounting would determine right costing and hence right pricing and right outcomes.
      7. Mission Capacity Utilisation – It proposes to prepare a blueprint for making full use of the huge new capacity that will be created through two Dedicated Freight Corridors between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata scheduled to be commissioned by 2019.

 

MISSION SATYANISHTHA

  • A Program on Ethics in Public Governance, to ensure that all railway servants adhere to impeccable conduct and integrity at all times.
  • It is the first ever such mission by any government organisation.
Objectives
    • To train every employee to understand the need and value of ethics in Personal and Public life.
    • To deal with ethical dilemmas in life and Public Governance.
    • To help understand the policies of Indian Railways on ethics and integrity and the employee’s role in upholding the same.
    • To develop inner governance through tapping inner resources.
Salient Features
    • It aims at sensitizing all railway employees about the need to adhere to good ethics and to maintain high standards of integrity at work.
    • Talks and Lectures on the subject are being organised all over the Indian Railways today for this purpose.

 

“VIKALP” – Alternate Train Accommodation Scheme

Objectives
    • VIKALP was conceputalised with a view to provide confirmed accommodation to wait-list passengers and also to ensure optimal utilisation of available accommodation.
    • To facilitate wait-list passengers get an alternative train accommodation within 12 hours of the original train.
    • Wait-list passengers will get confirmed accommodation in next alternative train if they opt for it while booking.
    • No extra charges to be paid by passenger to avail this scheme. No refund provided for the difference of fare.
    • It is implemented for passengers of all train types and classes.

 

DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR

Objectives
    • The project involves the construction of six freight corridors traversing the entire country.
    • The purpose of the project is to provide a safe and efficient freight transportation system
Salient Features
    • Initially the construction of Eastern and Western DFCs is being undertaken.
    • The other four corridors North-South (Delhi-Tamil Nadu), East-West (West Bengal- Maharashtra), East-South (West Bengal-Andhra Pradesh) and South-South (Tamil Nadu- Goa) are in planning stage.
    • In 2006, the Government of India established a dedicated body, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL), to implement the project.
    • Once operational, the western and eastern corridors will increase the railway’s freight carrying capacity to around 2,300 million tonnes, up from 1,200 million tonnes at present, and help reduce cost of freight transportation.
    • The construction of the western corridor is being fully funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and the eastern corridor is being partially funded by the World Bank.
    • The Dedicated Freight Corridor will be fully commissioned in phases by March 2020.

 

Rail Safety Fund (Rail Suraksha Kosh)

  • setup based on recommendation Anil Kakodkar committee
  • RSF Corpus – ~1 lakh crore over a period of five years
  • It is a non-lapsable fund
Utilization of Fund
    • For critical “safety related” works, track improvement, bridge rehabilitation work, improved inspection work, improvement of signalling system etc.
    • Receives fund from budget allocation and Central Road Fund (collected by levying Cess on diesel and petrol for safety-related work.)

 

SFOORTI App

Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) App for Freight Managers

Objectives
    • To provides features for monitoring and managing freight business using Geographic Information System (GIS) Views and Dashboard.
Salient Features

Functions

    • Movement of Passenger & freight trains can be tracked over Zones/Divisions/ Sections in single GIS View
    • Provides a Bird’s eye view of all Freight Assets in a single window, performance of each zone & divisions with respect to loading & utilization of freight assets
    • Comparative Analysis of Zonal/Divisional Traffic, new traffic captured & traffic lost.

 

INDIAN RAILWAYS E-PROCUREMENT SYSTEM (IREPS)

Objectives
    • It is an official portal of Indian Railways, for procurement of goods, works and services, sales of material and leasing of assets through e-tendering, e-auctioning or reverse auction.
Salient Features
    • It is developed and maintained by Centre for Railways Information System (CRIS).
    • It is the largest G2B portal.
    • It was awarded ‘Vigilance Excellence Award 2017’ by Central Vigilance Commission.
    • Recently, its mobile application Aapoorti was launched.

 

RAILCLOUD

  • A virtual server with an inbuilt security system that will enable faster connectivity at a reduced cost.
  • Aimed at – optimizing server, the resources and its management
Developed by
    • Rail PSU RailTel as part of Ministry of Railways strategic IT initiative, IR-OnelCTS. It works on popular Cloud Computing system.
Functions
    • RailCloud server resources are constantly scaled up or down as per the number of users logged on to the system and it ensures a better user experience.
    • It covers all management related and other services like human resources, signal assets, freight and logistics, health and hospital and energy among others.

 

NEW TRAINS & COACHES

Train -18 or Vande Bharat Express

    • Indigenously manufactured Semi High Speed (160 Kmph),
    • Self-Propelled Train-set.

Humsafar Trains

    • comfortable,
    • fully Air-Conditioned 3rd Tier travel

Antodaya trains

    • It is a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service, for the common person – to be operated on dense routes
    • Primary Target – very poor people

UDAY (Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-conditioned Yatri)

    • They are overnight trains plying on the busiest routes to increase capacity by 40 %
    • Double decker Trains

Tejas Express

    • India’s first Ultra-modern, semi-high speed (200 Kmph), full AC train.
    • Luxury class train -expensive than Shatabdi
    • First train to run on Private Partnership

Deen Dayalu Coaches

    • attached to some long-distance trains for unreserved travel
    • to enhance the carrying capacity.

Vistadome Coaches

    • enhanced viewing area including on roof to enable tourists to enjoy panoramic view while travelling.

 

OTHER INITIATIVES BY MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

 

Initiatives

Objective and Features

 

Clone train services

 

 

  • Proposed service will run ‘on high-demand routes’ within an hour of a scheduled train’s departure to accommodate those on its waiting list.
  • Ensures passengers reach their destination around same time as they had originally planned.
 

Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendras

 

  • (YTSK) on public private partnership basis for issuing of tickets.
 

Yatri Mitra Scheme

 

 

  • Objective- To provide comfort to old, ill, differently abled passengers while travelling in trains One can avail wheelchair or porter services.
  • These provisions needs to be booked at time of ticket,booking Can be free of cost (through NGOs) or Chargeable.
 

Project Swarn

 

 

  • It has been started to upgrade the condition of Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express Trains. 
  • 14 Rajdhanis and 15 Shatabdi trains identified to significantly improve passengers experience under the project.
  • Will focus attention on 10 key areas – punctuality, cleanliness, linen, coach interiors, toilets, catering, staff behavior, security, entertainment, housekeeping and regular feedback.
 

Project Saksham

 

  • Largest time-bound “upskilling” exercise for Indian Railways employees
  • Objective – To upgrade the skillsets of Railways employees with a single drive spanning 9 months, starting January 2018, to boost productivity and efficiency.
 

Project Utkrisht

 

  • has been launched to improve condition of 66 important Mail/ Express trains
 

“Sampark, samanvay and Samvad”

 

 

  • A conclave organized by the Ministry of Railways to discuss and deliberate – Vision for New Railway – New India 2022
  • Aimed at breaking boundary put up by railway organization by sharing information (sampark), improving co-ordination (samanvay), & finding solutions (samvad) to critical issues facing Indian Railways.
 

Gate Mitras

 

  • Persons deployed at Unmanned Level Crossing to alert road users about approaching trains.
 

‘Sarathi Sewa’

 

  • for provision of Battery Operated Vehicles (BOVs) at stations
 

Rail MADAD

 

  • Ministry of Railways has launched a new ‘Rail MADAD’ app for the purpose of speedy redressal of passengers’ complaints.
 

‘Rail Sahyog’ web portal

 

  • Indian Railways launched ‘Rail Sahyog’ web portal, which will provide a platform for the corporates and PSUs to contribute to creation of amenities at/near Railway Stations through Corporate Social Responsibility funds.
 

‘SAMANVAY’ Portal

 

  • It has been developed for online reporting of issues pending with State Governments pertaining to infrastructural developmental projects which are being undertaken by different Railway agencies.
 

NIVARAN Grievance Portal

 

  • It is first IT application to be launched on the RailCloud.
  • It is the platform for resolution of service related grievances of serving and former railway employees.
  • It will save significant revenue and improve user experience.
 

Bridge Management System

 

  • A Web-enabled IT Application that will be a single IT-based repository for all aspects related to bridges on Indian Railways viz. Master Data, condition, inspections, design drawings, etc.

 

 

 

 

To read and learn about Government Schemes & Programs related to other Ministries, Click Here(Notes on all Government Ministries Schemes and Programs)

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